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Cash Back Credit Cards Offering The Ultimate Christmas Shopping On Black Ads...And Make Some Money Back In The Process

2009-11-24T11:28:00.001-05:00

Greenfield, IN (PRWEB) November 24, 2009 -- Christmas shoppers looking for ways to enjoy even more benefits than credit cards can already provide will find this guide from Cash Back Credit Cards absolutely essential reading. Packed full of time-tested and proven advice for making the most out of credit card use during the upcoming holiday season–particularly during shopping “holidays” such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday–this guide is an invaluable resource for smart shoppers that are interested in stretching their shopping budget even further.

This helpful guide from Cash Back Credit Cards is offered to all credit card users and consumers free with no obligation. Offering invaluable information in one convenient location, consumers are provided instant access to cash back credit card tips that simply aren't available anywhere else. Given the high costs associated with the holiday season, consumers stand to benefit greatly from this collection of essential advice on how to make the shopping budget stretch a little bit further.
Among the valuable tips offered in this report is how Christmas shoppers can use credit cards for purchases and still make money back on the deal. The report also includes information on how consumers can use credit cards in a responsible manner and benefit from them.

One other topic that this report covers is how shoppers can use certain credit cards to get cashback offers that can add a considerable amount of money to the shopping budget. There are actually numerous credit card companies out there that offer substantial rewards for using credit cards for holiday purchases, and this report will provide a detailed look on some of the most helpful ones.

This report also provides facts about traditional shopping "holidays" such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and why using credit cards for shopping online is a better option. Many of the more common tips and tricks on how consumers can benefit from credit card usage are included in this report, and it is essential reading for anyone who is looking to benefit from cash back credit card usage during the holidays.

Shark Tank

2009-11-11T12:21:00.002-05:00

Shark Tank

E-Trad Global Trading

2007-02-21T19:12:00.000-05:00

E-Trad Global Trading, that's right, soon you will be able to acess and trade on oronto Stock Exchange, Tokyo Stock Exchange, Euronext Paris, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and the London Stock Exchange. This service will provide investors with more direct share ownership in international markets.

E-Trade Financial Corp. (ETFC) has unveiled a new service that will allow U.S. customers online access to trading in 6 major stock markets outside the country.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. (MC)

2007-02-21T10:21:00.000-05:00

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. (MC)

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. engages in the production and sale of electronic and electric products for consumer, business, and industrial uses. It operates in six segments: Audiovisual and Computer Products (AVC) Networks, Home Appliances, Components and Devices, MEW and PanaHome, JVC, and Other.

Matsushita produces electronic products under a variety of names, including:

* Panasonic (home appliances for the overseas market, personal electronics, audio/video equipment, microchips, automotive components)
* National (home appliances for the Japanese market)
* Nais (components for automated systems—replaced by Panasonic in 2004)
* Quasar (lower-priced televisions, video equipment and appliances in the North American market—being phased out)
* Technics (audio equipment)
* Ramsa (professional audio equipment)
* Rasonic (as of 1994, home appliances for the Chinese market).

5 yr Growth looks good to mean, Div/Yld, and the options all look like this could be a pretty nice stock to play.

XM and SIRI

2007-02-20T15:12:00.000-05:00

It seems that the top management at XM and SIRI have made it official, they announced today that they're going to attempt a merger. XM (XMSR, 13.98) and Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI, 3.70) agreed to combine in a $13 billion merger of equals, amid concerns about slowing growth and the cost to build up their programming content and subscriber bases. However, the deal, which is expected to result in substantial cost savings, still faces significant regulatory hurdles.

In other words, no real money changes hands, just funny money.

Under the terms of the agreement, XM shareholders would receive 4.6 Sirius shares for each XM share held, or a 21.7% premium based on the two companies' closing prices on Friday. While the deal was billed as a merger of equals, Sirius would own about 53% of the combined company, which would have had about $1.5 billion in revenues in 2006 and about 14 million subscribers, and XM would own roughly 47%. In other words, no real money changes hands, just funny money.

The deal must overcome significant regulatory obstacles, including an FCC provision that specifically restricts the two companies from merging. It must also meet antitrust approval from the Department of Justice. Pending regulatory approval, the companies expect the transaction to be completed by the end of 2007.

T. Rowe Price

2007-02-15T15:29:00.000-05:00

T. Rowe Price is going through with a 18 million-share increase in buyback plan

T. Rowe Price (TROW) as stated that it will be approved that 15 million-share increase in its stock buyback authorization. The action brings the Baltimore-based investment management company's total stock buyback authorization to 18.8 million shares. T. Rowe Price shares rose 17 cents to $49.77 in Thursday afternoon trade.

Dollar How Low Will It Go?

2007-02-15T15:15:00.000-05:00

The dollar continues to fall at a more than one month low agianst the yen Thursday, after U.S. government reports showed a mixed picture about the economy and the first net capital outflow for a year-and-a-half.

The yen received a boost after government data showed the Japanese economy expanded at a faster-than-expected pace in the fourth-quarter, sparking speculation the Bank of Japan will raise interest rates next week.

"We have better than expected data from Japan. Many are speculating that the BoJ is going to have to hike rates now," said Naomi Fink, senior currency strategist at BNP Paribas. "The U.S. data doesn't help, especially given" the capital flows report showing dwindling flows to fund the U.S. current account deficit, she said.
Chart of C_JPY

In New York trading, the euro stood at $1.3146, compared with $1.3127 late Wednesday, $1.3172, the highest level since Jan. 4. The dollar was quoted at 119.31 yen, compared with 120.71 yen. In intraday trading, it touched 119.29 yen, the lowest level since Jan. 10.

The British pound traded at $1.9544, compared with $1.9625. The dollar changed hands at 1.2333 Swiss francs, compared with 1.2349 francs.

The euro fetched 156.89 yen, compared with 158.55 yen. See live currency rates.

"The dollar is on the ropes as the outlook for both growth differentials and interest rate differentials continue to deteriorate," said Michael Woolfolk, senior currency strategist at The Bank of New York. "Look for the dollar for sustain more losses going into the three-day holiday weekend."

First outflow since 2005

Monthly capital flows reversed to an outflow of $11 billion in December compared to an inflow of $70.5 billion in November, the Treasury Department said. This was the first outflow since June 2005.

Net long-term capital inflows, meanwhile, fell to $15.6 billion in December from $84.9 billion in November. This is the lowest inflow since January 2002. The trade gap for the month stood at $61.2 billion. See full story.

"Today's TICS surprise moves global imbalance and U.S. twin deficit problem back on the front burner, with a red flag raised on adequate funding of the U.S. current account deficit," Woolfolk said.

Read the complete story...

Valentine's Day

2007-02-13T10:03:00.000-05:00

Valetine's Day

Did you know that tomorrow is Valentine's Day? Well you better have! Though, we are talking about Valentine's Day today the real question is what is Valentine's day really about these days. We keep seeing more and more money revolving around Valentine's Day and what seems to be less and less love. Though, my heart tells me it should be more about love and appreciation for those who matter most to us. Though, the said factor of the matter is that Valentine's Day is truly big business.

According to the National Retail Federation, U.S. consumers are expected to fork over almost $17 billion this year on Valentine's gifts for their loved ones. That's $17 billion spent on one day -- in the name of cubid.

Friday Bullets

2007-02-09T09:03:00.000-05:00

When the market trend challenges their beliefs, what do we hear from market "experts"?

I am not wrong; most people are just too stupid to understand what's going on.

My arguments are really good. It's only a matter of time until I'm right. (I am not wrong, just early.)

I never guaranteed that what I predicted would happen. I just said it probably would based on history.

If the Plunge Protection Team (or hedge funds or big brokers) hadn't manipulated the market, I would have been right.

I may be wrong on a lot of little things, but I'm right on the big ones.

I was wrong (thank goodness), but following my advice didn't cost that much. If I'd been right, and you didn't follow my advice, you'd be wiped out.

What I said in public may have looked wrong, but what I privately told clients was dead-on.

How could I be wrong if I'm so rich and famous?

What will Crude oil do? And what kind of effect will it have on the market?
Before Friday, crude oil had not traded above $60 a barrel on the Nymex since Jan. 3, the first trading day of the year.

Broadcom Calling a Come Back (BRCM, 33.67)

MasterCard Inc., the world's largest credit-card brand, said Friday its fourth-quarter profit topped Wall Street expectations as strong consumer spending boosted transactions.

Lastly, when is StockLemon going update?

CNBC starting an investment game for real cash prizes.

2007-02-09T08:48:00.000-05:00

CNBC starting an investment game for real cash prizes.

Beginning on March 5, 2007, CNBC is starting the Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge where you can sign up and create a pretend portfolio. At the end of each week, the winner will win $10 000. After 10 weeks, the 10 weekly winners as well as the top 10 rankers will have another chance to compete at the $1 million grand prize.

You can also get extra money to invest with by doing daily trivia and referring friends to play the game too. Sounds interesting for people who love to take risks and have such a large sum of money to invest with!!! Sign up here!

Corning (GLW)

2007-02-07T09:55:00.000-05:00

Corning (GLW)

Corning Incorporated provides technology-based products and services in the United States. The company operates through four segments: Display Technologies, Telecommunications, Environmental Technologies, and Life Sciences. The Display Technologies segment manufactures glass substrates for liquid crystal displays that are used in notebook computers, flat panel desktop monitors, and LCD televisions.

Corning is a blue chip company that has some strong, long, and distinguished history. Did you know that Corning was around to develop the bulb-shaped glass for Thomas Edison's incandescent lamp. While Corning is old this should not scare you away from this stock, because it continues to grow. With it's LCD televisions, optical fiber technology products, and many more.

We find this interesting as well coming from Breifing.com, Corning (GLW 20.86)
Updated: 24-Jan-07 13:26 ET was Updated: 24-Jan-07 13:26 ET

Earning Its Keep

A consequence of its decision is that Corning's first quarter won't look so robust. Currently, the company is estimating sales in the range of $1.26 to $1.31 billion and earnings in the range of $0.24 to $0.27, before special items. That compares to sales of $1.26 billion and earnings of $0.27 per share in the prior-year period.

Comparisons to 2006 will be challenging overall, as Corning's net income increased 35%, excluding items, to $1.78 billion, or $1.12 per share, on a 13% increase in sales to $5.17 billion. Its equity affiliates - Dow Corning and Samsung Corning Precision Glass - contributed 52% of net income, net of impairments. The FY07 consensus EPS estimate currently stands at $1.25, according to Reuters Estimates.

The drop in energy prices, which should help cut manufacturing costs, should help on the comparison front, as would an increased number of fiber-to-the-premises deployments by Verizon (VZ). Separately, a forecasted sales increase of more than 60% for its heavy-duty diesel products, which will stem from new U.S. emissions regulations that went into effect on Jan. 1, bodes well for Corning's growth prospects in 2007.

Also, just a little side note, we thought it would be interesting to pull up the history prices of GLW. Especially right around when this article came out from Briefing.com

This is what we found when we went to yahoo and pulled up the prices from Jan 23 to now. Knowing that someone knew this article was coming out, and now look at the price today Currently as of 22.52 what it opend at!

Date Open High Low Close Volume Adj Close*
7-Feb-07 22.52
6-Feb-07 21.50 22.41 21.45 22.37 36,924,000 22.37
5-Feb-07 21.19 21.58 21.17 21.36 15,186,900 21.36
2-Feb-07 20.86 21.23 20.85 21.09 14,004,900 21.09
1-Feb-07 21.00 21.14 20.70 20.86 10,674,700 20.86
31-Jan-07 20.74 20.97 20.30 20.84 13,931,900 20.84
30-Jan-07 20.76 21.01 20.64 20.68 13,292,800 20.68
29-Jan-07 21.15 21.28 20.79 20.92 11,096,300 20.92
26-Jan-07 21.28 21.30 20.95 21.20 12,167,100 21.20
25-Jan-07 21.30 21.73 20.89 21.16 27,326,800 21.16
24-Jan-07 20.21 21.09 20.20 20.90 65,890,000 20.90
23-Jan-07 18.95 19.00 18.60 18.84 14,801,900 18.84

Cisco (CSCO) is the Hot Stock This Morning

2007-02-07T09:33:00.000-05:00

Today all the talk is about Cisco. Some are stating that Wall St. is set to rise on Cisco, economic data!

Others are saying a good earnings report from the tech leader has the Nasdaq indicated higher, and is boosting the S&P as well.

Whatever the talk is about Cisco, it's big, and a lot of people are suggesting to buy some this morning. Check out Cisco (CSCO) and this could be an interested one to keep your eye on.

Words of Wisdom by Jesse Livermore

2007-02-02T12:29:00.000-05:00

“I don’t know whether I make myself plain, but I never lose my temper over the stock market. I never argue with the tape. Getting sore at the market doesn’t get you anywhere.”

"A loss never bothers me after I take it. I forget it overnight. But being wrong-not taking the loss-that is what does damage to the pocketbook and to the soul."

Words of Wisdom by Jesse Livermore

Burger King (BKC)

2007-01-30T16:59:00.000-05:00

Fast food giant Burger King (BKC) Burger King Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiary, Burger King Corporation, engages in the franchising and operation of fast food hamburger restaurants. Burger King also offers soft drinks and other food items. As of August 23, 2006, it operated approximately 11,000 restaurants in 65 countries worldwide. The company was founded in 1954 and is headquartered in Miami, Florida.

While Burger King (BKC) has jumped a up to 41% in the second quarter, and has declared it's first ever dividend as a public company. Check out the Stock Chart for Burger King (BKC)

Also you must notice that Burger King is currently the #2 burger chain, only to be behind McDonald's (MCD). And how can you like but like those Burger King commercials, but not only that. Though the fact that they had the best selling video game of the holiday season with the Xbox game collection they offered this past Christmas selling 3.2 million copies.

Stock Market Closes High on Tuesday

2007-01-30T16:50:00.000-05:00

The Closing was a very and high this Tuesday evening, since the Dow Jones industraial closed adding 33 points, or .3%, to 12,523, and the Nasdaq Composite was also up 8 points, or .3%, at 2449. Even better the S&P added another 8 points, or .6%, at 1429. Not a bad Tuesday after all.

Though, we don't feel as if anyone is ready to make any really big bets, considering tomorrow starts a two-day Federal Reserve meetting. Some major talk for the next few days will be taking place in Washington, D.C., where the Fed is gathering for the first day of a policy meeting. The central bank will meet again Wednesday before wrapping up its initial conference of 2007.

While no one is expecting change in the fed funds for the 5th straight time, though this will be interesting to see how it place out on the market. While, so many are looking for some type of rate cute something this year, it will probably not happend in the next two days.

Learn Something New Every Day

2007-01-30T13:03:00.000-05:00

Here is a thought for your, failing to prepare and plan financially is preparing to fail in the financial world. But, with that said, in today's world their is so much out their and where do you begin to prepare. Well, we are here to help you get started on preparing and planning for financial freedom. Web sites, books, magazines, and newspapers offer a wealth of information at your fingertips and usually their free.

We would also suggest in checking out investing focus (www.investingfocus.com), yahoo finance, and stock charts. We would suggest not only to read through these sites, to bookmark the site and make it a daily habit to read what's new and what's going in the stock market.

Also, we would suggest that reading one good money article a day, could keep the bankruptcy calls away. This kind of reading can quickly help you understand where your money is going, how you should invest your money, and what's hot on the street and what's not. This kind of knowledge, and understanding how to spent your money can improve and change your lifestyle forever.

3 Biggest Assests

2007-01-26T11:12:00.000-05:00

So every one is telling you to save more money this year. Well, let's take a closer look into where or how to people keep making money. In what areas do people keep making money from?

While checking out the markets and everything. We have came to noticed three major areas that just kept popping up everywhere we looked. These were the 3 biggest assests we saw:

401(k) retirement plan
stocks, investments, bonds, cd, ETF's and etc
house, real estate, home renting, end etc

So here are some thoughts from this. We have learned that buying assets not liabilities will increase your net worth. With all this said and done. Here are some examples that we would suggest that could help you out.

For your 401(k) - Maybe try paying yourself alittle extra each month, maybe just put in a few extra % each month. If you can not handle it for a the whole year. How about trying it for just a few months out the year to increase your 401(k) retirement plan.

Stocks - Try putting in an extra 5% for 3 months, and invest an extra 5% for a month and then drop everything back to normal.

House - If you own your home, then concentrate more on other investments. If your still paying off your house, try paying one extra principal payment a month. Or just doing one extra mortgage payment a year could do your net worth wonders!

Currency ETF's

2007-01-26T10:08:00.000-05:00

Currency ETF's

While the decline of the US dollar continues, the raise for a potential for currency moves. So we thought this was a good time to write about the currency affecting your stock portfolios. Here are some ideas and thoughts for the average investor, not to go run and open up an forex exchange account, while still having a little investment in currency.

With this scenerio that we have we decided to look up some basic ETF's that could be a good something to look for in long term investing. These ETFs are the CurrencyShares Euro Trust (FXE), CurrencyShares British Pound Sterling Trust (FXB), CurrencyShares Canadian Dollar Trust (FXC), CurrencyShares Australian Dollar Trust (FXA), CurrencyShares Swiss Franc Trust (FXF), CurrencyShares Swedish Krona Trust (FXS) and the CurrencyShares Mexican Peso Trust (FXM).

These are all exchange trade funds worth looking into while the decline of the US dollar continues.

NIike (NKE)

2007-01-25T14:33:00.000-05:00

Nike (NKE)

Nike activities are to design, produce, develop and market high quality sports and fitness footwear, apparel, equipment and accessory products. It mainly markets athletic footwear and athletic apparel worldwide. The Company also caters its products to tennis, golf, soccer, baseball, football, bicycling, volleyball, wrestling, cheerleading, aquatic activities, hiking and other athletic and recreational uses. The trademarks of the Company include NIKE(R) and Swoosh Design(R) and are sold under the brand names Cole Haan(R), Bauer(R) and NIKE(R). The Company operates 21 distribution centers in Europe, Asia, Australia, Latin America, Africa and Canada. On 11-Aug-2004, the Company acquired Starter Properties LLC and Official Starter LLC.

The Air Jordan is a brand of Nike basketball shoes named after Michael Jordan. Its considered to be the best basketball shoe brand ever. EVER.

Pacific Ethanol, Inc. (PEIX)

2007-01-25T10:14:00.000-05:00

Here is a little look of what you could have played on Monday with the whole President deal. You could have bought Pacific Ethanol, Inc. (PEIX) on Monday at 15.94 and Sold out on Wednesday it reached a high at 18.79. If you do your math you could have made in two days off of one stock $2.85 a share! Now that's not a bad little profit!

Coin shortage could turn pennies to nickels

2007-01-24T13:27:00.000-05:00

Talk about pennies from heaven.

Who would have ever thought that those pennies saved up would be worth more in the long run. Well, with a potential shortage of coins in the United States could help out with this matter. Which means all those pennies in your piggy bank could be worth five times their current value soon, says an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

Sharply rising prices of metals such as copper and nickel have meant the face value of pennies and nickels are worth less than the material that they are made of, increasing the risk that speculators could melt the coins and sell them for a profit.

Such a risk spurred the U.S. Mint last month to issue regulations limiting melting and exporting of the coins.

But Francois Velde, senior economist at the Chicago Fed, argued in a recent research note that prohibitions by the Mint would unlikely deter serious speculators who already have piled up the coinage.

The best solution, Velde said, would be to "rebase" the penny by making it worth five cents rather than one cent. Doing so would increase the amount of five-cent coins in circulation and do away with the almost worthless one cent coin.

"History shows that when coins are worth melting, they disappear," Velde wrote.

"Rebasing the penny would ... debase the five-cent piece and put it safely away from its melting point," he added.

Raw material prices in general have skyrocketed in the last five years, sending copper prices to record highs of $4.16 a pound in May. Copper pennies number 154 to a pound. Prices have since come down from that peak but could still trek higher, Velde said.

Since 1982, the Mint began making copper-coated zinc pennies to prevent metals speculators from taking advantage of lofty base metal prices. Though the penny is losing its importance -- it is worth only four seconds of the average American's work time, assuming a 40-hour workweek -- the Mint is making more and more pennies.

Velde said that since 1982 the Mint has produced 910 pennies for every American. Last year there were 8.23 billion pennies in circulation, according to the Mint.

"These factors suggest that, sooner or later, the penny will join the farthing (one-quarter of a penny) and the hapenny (one-half of a penny) in coin museums," he said.

Ethanol stocks rally ahead of State of the Union speech

2007-01-24T11:31:00.000-05:00

Ethanol stocks rally ahead of State of the Union speech

Shares of ethanol producers rallied on Tuesday ahead of President George W. Bush's State of the Union speech tonight in which he's expected to urge for a big increase in the amount of ethanol that refiners mix with gasoline.

The president might call for a rise of over 60 billion gallons of ethanol annually by 2030, according to reports. The ethanol industry received a significant boost after Bush advocated alternative fuels in his 2006 State of the Union address.

Ethanol, an alcohol-based alternative fuel produced from starch or sugar-based
feedstocks, has gained popularity in response to rising oil prices and concerns that the United States is overly dependent on imported oil.

Ahead of tonight's presidential speech, the stocks of ethanol producers surged.

Shares of VeraSun Energy Corp. (VSE, Trade ), one of several ethanol producers to go
public last year, were last up 5.21% to $18.80.

Pacific Ethanol (PEIX, Trade ), a California-based refiner of corn-derived ethanol, jumped 6.24% to $17.87. FBR upgraded the stock to Outperform from Market Perform citing positive expectations based on an increasingly favorable regulatory environment, particularly in California, as well as the company's recent operational achievements.

"We believe that the stock is now ideally positioned for upward movement and recommend investors take positions in the stock ahead of Tuesday night's State of the Union address," said analysts Jacques Rousseau and Eitan Bernstein in a research note on Tuesday.

The analysts added that while most of their colleagues rate the stock a hold or a sell, that sentiment should be reversed.

Shares of Xethanol Corp (XNL, Trade ), an ethanol maker, rallied 17.41% to $3.17.

Shares in Aventine Renewable Energy (AVR, Trade ) gained 2.63% at $20.33.

Shares of Archer Daniels Midland (ADM, Trade ), the largest producer of fuel ethanol in the U.S., went up 3.39% to $32.90.

Shares of Monsanto Co. (MON, Trade ), which sells corn seed to farmers, were up 2.03% to $54.38.

Green Plains Renewable Energy (GPRE, Trade ) was up 1.07% to $23.70.

Shares of MGP Ingredients (MGPI, Trade ), a producer of ingredients and distillery
products, including ethanol, added 7.27% to $23.30.

The Andersons Inc (ANDE, Trade ), which has an ethanol division, was up 2.89% to $41.67.

Despite today's rally, some analysts urged caution. While alternative energy stocks
eventually have to become a bigger part of the world energy mix, these stocks "are
momentum plays with generally mediocre financials and high valuations," said Dan
Pickering, an analyst with Pickering Energy Partners in Houston, in a note on Tuesday.

Alternative energy stocks have declined between 30% and 60% since they last gained
momentum last spring, Pickering added.

On Wednesday, Bush will visit E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co.'s (DD, Trade ) biofuels
programs in Wilmington, Del., said DuPont CEO Charles Holliday in a Tuesday conference call. Bush will visit three programs: one on higher-yielding grain ethanol; one on cellulosic ethanol, which makes fuel from stalks and non-food crops and other parts of the corn plant; and a program partnering with BP Plc (BP, Trade ) to make biobutanol.

Ethanol is produced by converting crops into simple sugars. Crops include corn, sugar
cane, barley, wheat, and biomass. Ethanol is blended with gasoline to improve its
emissions quality. One blend, called E85, contains 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline. Several car manufacturers make flexible-fuel vehicles, which run on E85.

Six Flags and the Wii

2007-01-23T11:47:00.000-05:00

Amusement park operator Six Flags Inc. (SIX) is stating that they have entered into a sponsorship and marketing agreement with Nintendo Co. Ltd. unit Nintendo of America.

Under the agreement, Nintendo's Wii video game system will become the official gaming console of Six Flags parks. Six Flags will also offer complimentary game-playing at Wii gaming stations at select theme parks.

This one could be fun standing in line playing a little of the nintendo wii, and then have some more fun on some awesome roller coaster! Great idea six flags great idea!

What can Brown do to your Portofolio

2007-01-22T13:44:00.000-05:00

United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS), a package delivery company, provides specialized transportation and logistics services in the United States and internationally. It offers a range of supply chain solutions, such as freight forwarding, customs brokerage, fulfillment, returns, financial transactions, and repairs. The company operates through three segments: U.S. Domestic Package, International Package, and Supply Chain and Freight. The U.S. Domestic Package segment's operations include the delivery of letters, documents, and packages in the United States.

UPS has been continued to raise their dividends, doubles it's cash flow, and continues to grow international. We feel with all these factors,that UPS would be a good stock to look into. And even The Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio has some UPS and states they feel positive on this one for a long term.

So maybe you should start looking at this one for yourself alittle more.

Always improving, learning, watching videos, the life of a Pro

2007-01-18T10:44:00.000-05:00

That's what Jermaine O'Neal did and does in the offseason. We recently found a great article talking about Jermaine O'Neal working hard in the offseason especially in the department of keeping his hands straight and up just like what Hakeem Olajuwon, a 12-time All-Star who was a force in the paint would do.

Hard work does pay off. Jermaine O'neal aka JO, worked extremely hard during this past summer and hopes of a great season, and to make the All-Defensive team. Well, JO is doing just that, he is currently leads the league in blocks with 3.1 swats per game, up from 2.3 bpg last year and 1.8 bpg over his career.

Working to expand his game during the summer, JO made an effort to raise his defensive play with his sights set on the All-Defensive team. Sounds like Larry Joe Legend has had an impact on how his talent views what truly great players bring to the game. One of the keys to his improvement in blocks is explained here:

O'Neal, who spent the summer in Indianapolis working out with the team's training staff, spent part of the off season looking at a tape of Hakeem Olajuwon, a 12-time All-Star who was a force in the paint, that older brother Clifford gave him.

The average basketball fan may not notice the difference, but what caught O'Neal's eye about Olajuwon helped him block more shots.

Olajuwon started his shot blocking motion with his hand up. O'Neal routinely started his motion with arm down by his side.

"Simple hand placement," O'Neal said. "The difference between a guy getting a shot off and you blocking a shot is merely a second. That's a difference from you having to come from your waist to up high. It makes it easier to block a shot when your hand is already up."

Here is another great example of how you videos, and working on your individual skills and through hard work can pay off and make dreams come true.

Make succes simple and making success simpler

2007-01-18T10:16:00.000-05:00

Make succes simple and making success simpler

How to break the cyle of being in debt, or once you've broken the cylce. Then start taking steps of paying back the amount already owed. You have to have full plan of attack to make and continue any progress. And one major importance is sticking to your plan of attack.

A very good strategy for this is, it the spread of your interest rates on you debts:
First strategy attack should be to pay off your highest-rate debt first.
Second strategy attack is to making the maximum monthly payment you can afford on that card.
Third strategy attack is to be paying the minimum required on the rest of your debt.

Also, remember once the interest buildup on that card goes down, you'll automatically start paying down principal faster. Repeat the process with the next highest rate card and so on.

If the rate spread among your loans isn't big, pay off your smallest debt instead. The results will feel rewarding, and knowing that your finally going somewhere. completely.

Retirement procrastination

2007-01-17T13:28:00.000-05:00

Retirement procrastination

We all do it rather it's investing, retirement, or just with work everyday. Or maybe it's even putting off cleaning the house. Well, here is a losing scenerio for you wait until you are 45 or 50 years old to start saving for retirement. This is what we would call retirement procrastination and your going to be having a pretty short retirement. Consider that someone who starts socking away $300 a month at age 45, and earns an average annual return of 8 percent, will have about $178,000 at the age of 65. But if you start saving at 25, you'll have $1,054,000.

Yes, it's true you invest more of your own money ($144,000 versus $72,000) when you start saving at the age of 25, but look at the payoff: you end up with about $875,000 more because you played the time card so well.

Make Your Mortages Your Friend

2007-01-17T13:22:00.000-05:00

Make Mortages your friend for your future

Well, we hope when you looked into choosing the right mortgage for you did your homework, research. You probably learned about which you should go with rather it was fixed rate, a hybrid, or an ARM. Though, did you forget about something. How long are you wanting this mortgage?

It's pretty much a reflexive move that we always opt for a 30-year mortgage. For my money, if you know you're going to be staying in that home for at least the next 10 years, a 15-year mortgage is the smartest move if you can handle the higher payments.

First, the interest rate on a 15-year fixed rate mortgage is typically about a half a percentage point below a 30-year fixed. Right off the bat, then, you have a better deal. But the real payoff is that you'll pay so much less in interest payments over the life of the loan.

On a $200,000, 15-year fixed-rate mortgage at 5.5 percent, the total interest payments are about $94,000, compared to more than $231,000 on a 30-year fixed-rate at 6 percent. Clearly, the time you take to pay off your mortgage has a huge financial cost.

Obviously, the 15-year loan also requires a higher monthly payment ($1,634 versus $1,200 in the example above). If that's not doable, then at least try to send in an extra payment or two a year on your 30-year mortgage. Just one extra payment a year will shave 5 years off your mortgage, which is going to save you plenty of interest.

You do the Math

2007-01-17T12:56:00.000-05:00

You do the Math

You really have to think, research, and know your investment options before you go diving into something blindfolded. To illustrate this, pick the offer below that seems better:

1. I'll give you $1,000 a day for 30 days.

2. I'll give you a penny on day one and then double your money every day for the rest of the 30-day month.

So which would you pick?

Well, some of you might think this is just another trick question, and really don't know what to pick. Other may have heard this one before, while some are saying I want my $30,000 screw that penny stuff.

Well, let's just do the math shall we. The first option plays on our impatience, because it takes no time at all to do the math on it: You'll have $30,000 at the end of the month. The second option doesn't seem so great at first glance, plus it takes time to do the math. But it'd be time well spent: Choose the second option and you'd have more than $5 million at the end of a 30-day month.

This winter reduce your heating cost and save money

2007-01-16T11:08:00.000-05:00

Reduce Heating Costs With These Money Saving Tips

If you live in a region that is cold in the winter, heating costs take a big bite out of your monthly budget for 25 - 50% of the year. Due to the rapidly escalating costs of home heating oil, propane, and kerosene, you may be paying twice as much to heat your house as you did just a few years ago. You can cut your heating costs significantly by following these money-saving tips.

Enrolling in load management programs and off-hour rate programs offered by your electric utility may save you up to $100 a year in electricity costs. Call your electric utility for information about these cost-saving programs.

Do an energy audit of your house, identifying areas where heated air is leaking out. Check around doors, windows, fireplaces, and other areas that may feel drafty. Use caulk, weather stripping, door sweeps, plastic, and other appropriate means to close off these leaks. If your house is poorly insulated, adding additional insulation will pay for itself in reduced heating costs. Ask your electric or gas utility if they audit homes for free or for a reasonable charge. If they do not, ask them to refer you to a qualified professional.

Minimize your use of ventilation fans such as bathroom fans and kitchen hood fans in winter. Reduce your heating billUse reflective insulation To reduce your heating costs

A bathroom fan can suck all the heated air out of the average house in little more than an hour. Over the course of the winter, ventilation fans can increase your heating costs by a surprising amount.

Don't heat areas of your house you don't use regularly, such as guest rooms. Close the doors, heating vents, or turn back thermostats in those areas.

Turn down the heat and use space heaters to heat the room you spend time in.

Keep your furnace, heat pump, or other heating equipment in top operating condition. Dirty filters reduce the efficiency of your furnace or heat pump. Poorly tuned units are inefficient and use more fuel. An annual maintenance agreement is well worth the money to ensure that your equipment is properly maintained and will last as long as possible.

Don't turn your thermostat up above the desired temperature. It won't heat up any more quickly and will make your furnace work harder. Also, while it makes sense to turn the heat back when you're sleeping or not at home, turning it down too low can actually cost you more because the contents of the house have to be re-heated in addition to the air. 68 to 70 degrees while you're home and awake, and 60 to 65% while you're asleep or not at home are reasonable temperatures.

Consider a programmable thermostat to raise and lower the temperature at pre-set times.

Check the temperature setting on your hot water heater. If you have a dishwasher, your water should be heated to 120%. Otherwise, it can be somewhat lower.

If your water heater is in an unheated space like an unfinished basement, wrap it in an insulation blanket available at hardware stores to prevent heat loss.

Wash clothes in cold water whenever possible.

Try to cut your shower time in half and this could cut your water heating cost in about a third. Try it really works.

In winter, try to get as much sun light as possible by opening the blinds and curtains or at the least the the sunny side of the house (the south-facing side), but it's important to close them all as soon as the sun goes down to retain the solar heat. Close curtains on the shady side of the house (north-facing side). Also, If you don't have curtains, consider installing some. Curtains made from heavy fabric with lots of folds (fullness) can prevent cold air from seeping in and warm air from seeping out, which reduces your heating costs.

Master Limited Partnership (MLP)

2007-01-16T10:21:00.000-05:00

What is Master Limited Partnership (MLP):
A master limited partnership (MLP) is a limited partnership but it's still publicly traded. Each share of ownership is referred as a units. MLPs generally operate in the real estate markets, the natural resource, and financial services.

How do Master Limited Partnership (MLP) work:
Unlike a corporation, a master limited partnership is considered to be the aggregate of its partners rather than a separate entity. It combines the tax benefits of a limited partnership with the liquidity of publicly traded securities.

MLPs allow for pass-through income, meaning that they are not subject to corporate income taxes. Instead, owners of an MLP are personally responsible for paying taxes on their individual portions of the MLP's income, gains, losses, and deductions. This eliminates the "double taxation" generally applied to corporations (whereby the corporation pays taxes on its income and the corporation's shareholders also pay taxes on the corporation's dividends).

MLPs make distributions that are similar to dividends, and these are generally paid out on a quarterly basis. It is important to note that cash distributions are not guaranteed, and every unitholder is responsible for the taxes on his or her proportionate share of income, even if the MLP does not pay a cash distribution. In practice, MLPs pay their investors through quarterly required distributions (QRD), the amount of which is stated in the contract between the limited partners (the investors) and the general partner (the managers). Failure to pay the QRD may constitute an event of default.

Generally, investors can purchase MLP units from brokers. A unitholder's initial tax basis in MLP units is generally the amount he or she pays for the units. The unitholder's basis is usually then decreased with each distribution and allocation for losses or deductions, and the basis is increased for each allocation of income. A portion of certain distributions may qualify as a return of the investor's capital, thereby reducing the unitholder's taxable basis.

When an MLP pays more in distributions than it earns in taxable income, the unitholder's tax basis is decreased by the difference between the cash received and the MLP's taxable income. When the unitholder sells his or her units, any gain on the sale is taxed at the unitholder's ordinary income tax rate.

MLPs must mail an IRS Schedule K-1 to each of their unitholders every year. This Schedule K-1 reports the unitholder's allocated income, gain, loss, deduction, and credits. If the unitholder's taxable partnership income for the year is negative, then this is considered a passive loss under the tax code and may not be used to offset income from other sources. Instead, the passive loss may only be used to offset future income from the same MLP.

Although unitholders are generally limited in their liability, similar to a corporation's shareholders, creditors typically have the right to seek the return of distributions made to unitholders if the liability in question arose before the distribution was paid. This liability stays attached to the unitholder even after he or she sells the units.

Why Master Limited Partnership (MLP):
The fact that master limited partnerships (MLPs) are not subject to income tax means that more cash is available for distributions than would be available had the company incorporated. This generally makes MLP units worth more than similar shares of a corporation.

The size of an MLP's cash distributions generally drives the value of its MLP units. With this in mind, it is particularly important for investors to carefully evaluate whether an MLP is able to meet its current distribution obligations and whether it will be able to continue (and possibly even raise) its future distributions. If a particular MLP sports a distributable cash flow coverage ratio of 1:1, then this generally indicates that the MLP has adequate cash to meet its cash distribution requirements.

As a side note, the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 added MLP income to the list of acceptable sources of income for mutual funds, with some conditions, including that mutual funds may not invest more than 25% of their assets in MLPs, nor may they own more than 10% of any one MLP.

Here is a good example of how not to invest your life savings

2007-01-15T14:48:00.000-05:00

Here is a good example of how not to invest your life savings! Brit Ashley Revell bets $136000 on one spin of the roulette wheel in Las Vegas after selling everything he owned. This is what happened..

Be wise investing with your money

2007-01-15T11:49:00.000-05:00

Be Wise with your money starting now!

Where is your money going? Yes, we know that you have probably read all those articles of just cutting out that cup of coffee at Starbucks, or the big fountain drink at the gas station. But, for most of us that might last maybe the first week of the new year, but rely does not last nor have much of an effect on your savings.

So why not take a look at a bigger look at things. Just like anything along with saving money, it takes hard work, discipline, and more hard work. So let's start of with taking a look at what kind of cars or vehicles do you have or are you driving in your family?

Consider the fact that once you purchase any new car and drive it off the lot it's going to start depreciating right away. Meaning if you purchase a 2007 car at $30,000, you will never get that amount back when you sell or trade it in. But, you will get a nice car. But, let's take a closer look at this. Why not look into different options in cars. Sometimes Just giving up leather seats, sunroof, and a few horse power could save you up to $10,000, and now that's a lot of cups of coffee or fountain drinks!

We estimate if you drive less expesive cars saving say $10,000, in a life time you could save well over $150,000 in YOUR LIFETIME!!

How about this one for saving more money. Plan and send your children to public schools and universities. We know that some are really wanting to send their youngsters to Yale or Harvard, but you look into sending them to State schools. The stats don't lie either stating that students with similar academic abilities earn the same whether they attend top schools or less selective ones.

Also looking taking vacations in the offseason or taking a trip to South American or Canada instead of Europe. This kind of vacations can save you well over $1,000 per vacation.

After checking out your vacation spots, than take a long hard look at your house and what you really need. Just some things to really think about helping you save and being wise with where you put your money.

The success of strategies like this will obviously depend on what you want to do with the all the extra savings! One simple way of doing this is estimate how much money you could save in a year off of this stragety and the increase your 401(k) or even better automatic IRA contributions by that amount. We really like this idea that automatically forces you to start saving each month.

Level 3 (LVLT)

2007-01-12T14:56:00.000-05:00

Level 3 (LVLT)

Level 3 is look good to me. The facts are in and Level 3 is now trading in debt for
equity. Yes, that's right! How many companies would like to be doing that?

Well, get this Level 3 takes $490 mln of Level 3's 10% Convertible Senior Notes due 2011 for a total of approx 160.1 mln sh of LVLT's common stock, equivalent to approx 326.78 shares per $1,000 note. As a result of the exchange, co expects to reduce its 07 cash interest expense by approx $47 mln. The notes are callable by the company on May 1, 09.

With this kind of news, this stock could move just about anywhere and the estimates will probably keep going up. Now if Level 3 could just get a few more quick deals like this and this company could be a cash flow before this year is up...okay maybe more then just a few, but still at the moment looks good to me for Level 3.

Business Week

2007-01-12T13:37:00.000-05:00

Business Week! You have to check this one out! Or you are even just looking for your Free Business Magazines check it out today!

Warren Buffet Interview

2007-01-12T10:43:00.001-05:00

Here is a great interview with Warren Buffet! The Oracle from Omaha visits Israel. Special interview on TheMarker TV.

Warren Edward Buffett Biography : Famous American Investor - Stock Market Guru
Famous for : The successful Berkshire Hathaway Company, 2nd Richest man in the world, & Philanthropist
Buffet details : Born - August 30, 1930 Omaha, Nebraska / Lives - United States of America - Omaha

Buffet Quotes, Warren Buffet Quotes, investing quotes, business quotes

"Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing."
Warren Buffett - Stock Market - Investing - Knowledge

"Only buy something that you'd be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years."
Warren Buffett - Stock Market - Long Term Investing

"We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful."
Warren Buffett - Greed - Fear - Investing

"Why not invest your assets in the companies you really like? As Mae West said, "Too much of a good thing can be wonderful"."
Warren Buffett - Investing - Assets

"Your premium brand had better be delivering something special, or it's not going to get the business."
Warren Buffett - Branding

"Our favourite holding period is forever."
Warren Buffet - Long Term Investing

For more Buffet Quotes, Warren Buffet Quotes, investing quotes, business quotes check this out.

Warren Buffet Interview

2007-01-12T10:43:00.000-05:00

Here is a great interview with Warren Buffet! The Oracle from Omaha visits Israel. Special interview on TheMarker TV.

Warren Edward Buffett Biography : Famous American Investor - Stock Market Guru
Famous for : The successful Berkshire Hathaway Company, 2nd Richest man in the world, & Philanthropist
Buffet details : Born - August 30, 1930 Omaha, Nebraska / Lives - United States of America - Omaha

Buffet Quotes, Warren Buffet Quotes,

"Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing."
Warren Buffett - Stock Market - Investing - Knowledge

"Only buy something that you'd be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years."
Warren Buffett - Stock Market - Long Term Investing

"We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful."
Warren Buffett - Greed - Fear - Investing

"Why not invest your assets in the companies you really like? As Mae West said, "Too much of a good thing can be wonderful"."
Warren Buffett - Investing - Assets

"Your premium brand had better be delivering something special, or it's not going to get the business."
Warren Buffett - Branding

"Our favourite holding period is forever."
Warren Buffet - Long Term Investing

Stock Holdings of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B)

2007-01-12T09:53:00.000-05:00

Stock Holdings of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B)

New Investments and Additions?

In Berkshire Hathway last filing with the SEC showed that he has gone with some new investments and additions. Looking into this one, we saw that Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) did receive shares in Western Union (WU) which was spun off from longtime holding First Data (FDC). Berkshire also increased its stake in five of its existing holdings: Iron Mountain (IRM), Lowe's (LOW), Nike (NKE), and USG (USG).

We see that the Western Union was added, and it sort of draws our attention as well being the most dominate monery transfer market. Western Union looks to have some upside, but we would suggest doing you own homework and research on the matter.

Also, check out that Berkshire invested more into USG, a manufacturer of gypsum wallboards, which emerged from asbestos-related bankruptcy last June. Berkshire has owned USG since 2001, and more recently backed a rights offering from the company in mid-2006. Given Buffett's experience with asbestos liabilities via Berkshire's insurance operations.

Though, while you look at what Berkshire is adding you must also look at what they are getting or letting go of. Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) is taking a less position on beer maker Anheuser Busch (BUD), continues to sell off tax adviser H&R Block (HRB), continued to let go of more shares of Ameriprise Financial (AMP), and appears to have sold a fair amount of its mass-market retailer Target (TGT).

To check out Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) current holding today!

Japanese Stocks

2007-01-11T13:41:00.000-05:00

Japan and the Asian Market is worth taking a look at we think. We would suggest starting with funds (rather it's tradition mutual fund or ETF that is up to you) while trying to target and break into this Japan market. Note that Japanese stocks most regular appear in a lot of the most diversified international funds. And one more interesting fact is that a majority of large-cap foreign funds keep just about one fifth of their assets in stocks from Japan. With those to factores in mind we though it was worth talking alittle more look into some funds targeting Japan. And your wanting a true diversified portfolio its probably worth checking in and seeing if you have any investments targeting Japanese stocks.

Well, if you do you don't it might be the right time to start researching a few and we would like to help you out and start you with alittle pre homework. You have several options when looking to the Japanese stocks and Japan ETFs. Starting with Matthews Japan (MJFOX) and T. Rowe Price Japan (PRJPX), though they are not looking really bright as of right now. Another option is going the ETFs way of things while looking at iShares MCSI Japan Index (EWJ), which cost about half as much as those conventional near-picks and provides exposure to 85% of the Japanese market. These seem to play pretty heavy on these two Japan stocks Toyota (TM) and Sony (SNE), these two stocks could also be in some of your other foreign funds you own something you might want to look into.

While this one is so fresh, we really don't know what to think about it yet. Though, with that said, maybe you could give it a good hard look and figure out for yourself. WisdomTree Japan Total Dividend (DXJ) new ETF offering mid-cap to larg-cap Japanese stocks that are dividend pay outs instead of focusing on the actual market money matter. No one will know how the divinded playing stocks will play out this year, but it's low cost and diversification we seem is well worth the look.

Investing Goals

2007-01-11T12:26:00.000-05:00

Write down why you invest in what you do. Or write down your Investin goals!

That's right, writing down your investing goals, or what you want out of your investments, or why your investing in what you are doing currently will help:

focuse your investing goals
organize your investments/investing goals
organize your focus and strategy towards your investing goals

They say this can work with anything. Rather your goal is investing more, getting healthy, or even just simple things as relaxing more.

But the idea is simple and easy. Write down why your wanting to invest in something new, or why you invested in that stock in the first place, and lastly what are you wanting to get out of that investment. So with these written down you can then stay more focused and on task with all your investments. But, you must have discipline as well to know if those investments are not reaching your goal or purpose that are written down then it's time to move on. For example if you say I would like to make a 45% return on this investment in a year. Well, and that year is up and you have not made that return well, then it's probably time to cut your loose.

Noting why you bought the fund--to get large-cap growth exposure and consistently above-average returns from a manager who has been in charge for several years, for example--will help to instill discipline and eliminate some of the emotion that so often gets in the way of smart investing.

For example you purchase iShares Dow Jones Select Dividend Index (DVY) to cover the costs of your son's education in 15 years. After much research you chose this EFT because the number look good and the dividend is pretty much unbeatable. After reflecting a good combination of returns and risk; its expenses were lower than the category average; and the fund didn't risk a lot on the technology stocks that so many other growth funds were feasting on. Those are all good reasons. So you shouldn't even consider selling the fund unless it falls short on these points.

To take the opposite case, maybe you bought DWS International (SCINX) because you wanted some international exposure and you were attracted by its long-tenured management and consistent performance. But since 1999, the fund's performance has been erratic, and it has also undergone a few management changes. Because the fund is no longer meeting your main reasons for buying it, selling would be a reasonable choice. Other legitimate reasons to sell would be that a fund has hiked its expense ratio or assets have gotten so bloated that performance starts to suffer. But remember reading all this, and action are two different things. It really comes down to you taking control, discipline, and writing down your investing goals.

Stock Losses, Stock Gains

2007-01-11T10:50:00.000-05:00

Here is a scenerio that I am sure we have all seen or heard of before. So you purchase a stock and it goes up a little bit after you buy it, but then say it drops 4%-5. The question is what should you do in this scenerio?

Well, we will try to break it down for you. Before really breaking it down lets talk about the bad news scenerio or different cases. Such as, you purchase a stock that never reaches a selling gain level that you like say 15% or higher. Well, then we would look into allowing that stock to decline as low as 8% before selling (unless there is bad news thinking it could only get worse then we would look into selling at any point).

Next say a stock that is purchased goes to a 7% loss and a 29% gain, meaning your target is you start selling shares at a 30% gain and/or 8% loss. Then no matter what we suggest to stick with your guns and sell all share at the 8% loss stop.

Next case, if I have sold the stock once at the approximately 30% appreciation point. In this case, if you choose to only sell partially out at the 30% level we would then ride it all the way out for either a higher gain or sell completely out of it at a break even point.

Their are many other types of strageties out there about this kind of topic and where and when to let go of your stock. But, the biggest keys we suggest are stick to your guns no matter what. If you have a 8% stock loss than stick with that. And overalll you will see the benefits in the long run!

Exchange-Traded Funds

2007-01-10T22:30:00.000-05:00

Exchange-Traded Funds

As assets in exchange-traded funds top $325 billion and the number of ETFs climbs near 300, investors now have indexed-based choices that cover everything from the S&P 500 to foreign currencies. That has some people wondering if there aren't already too many options. Lower fees, better tax efficiency and the ability to trade at will have been cited for ETFs' popularity. Also, note that the big run for ETFs was right with the scandals of the 2003 of all the mutual fund companies.

We think the continue growth and demand for exchange-traded funds will continue though 2007. Enough with the growth, ETFs will hold to be in popular trend in investing. While we thinkg more smart investors will jump on the EFT band wagon, and understand that most mutual funds can not beat indexes. Due to this factor smart investors will come a running to ETFs. Again, though some old school investors will still not give in and try to fight back with traditional mutuals funds, but don't be fooled this upcoming year.

The truth of a growing stock options.

2007-01-10T13:49:00.000-05:00

At the end of 2006 we look back and see that this was another hit year for the total of options continue to increase. It is stated that the the total option volume hit a recored 2.02 billion contracts. That's even a 35% increase over 2005 and marks the fourth consecuive yea of 30% plus volume growth.

If history continue to repeat itself in this area of stock option contracts. It might be worth a little more of your time to check into, and read a little more information about stock options.

This big increase player is the role of the hedge funds, these hedge fund are making up nearly 25% of trading volume in both options and equities. Plus the fact that traditional mutual funds use options to reduce risk, help investing, and generate income. The most evident of it all is the covered-calls and buy-write funds, which continue to raise and have risen over $100 billion the past two years.

With all this information, it's worth a look to see how much of stock options are coming down the pipe lines. In a recent survey by Schwab of 2,000 of its stock option clients revealed that more than half use options for income generation and some 46% are using options as part of their retirement-planning portfolio.

Plus the growing fact of mainstream brokers such as OptionsXpress, Schwab, E*Trade, and others. All these brokers are seeing this trend in stock options and continue to provide great resource, educational tools, trading tools, and even more option eductional tools. It seems as if finally investors have put a side the idea that we have been hearing for years which is "stock options are to risky" and "options are just to hard to learn". Plus, add the factor that all across the board commission rates have dropped which adds helping the stock options market overcome these myths.

Finally, we have to throw in the exchange-traded funds that continue to grow and will provide another great way to utilize stock options. For example, ETFs such as the Spyder Trust (SPY), the Nasdaq 100 Trust (QQQQ ) and iShares Russell 2000 Index (IWM) are typically the most-active options, trading collectively an average of more than 350,000 contracts a day.

ETF Corner

2007-01-10T13:18:00.000-05:00

ETF Corner

Here some big winner in the ETF corner. Let's first check out the iShares Silver Trust (SLV) this EFT was a big winner when the Silver Trust (SLV) rose 1.9% reaching now $124.48.

Also, this ETF rose 1.2% based from the holdings of Apple (AAPL), and with the new of the new Apple iPhones and Apple TV. The EFT corner takes a loook at the Internet Architecture HOLDRs (IAH) which boosted up 52 cents to $44.46.

The B2B Internet HOLDRs (BHH) was rising as Checkfree (CKFR ) gained 1.2%. The ETF was ahead by 2 cents, or 0.9%, to $2.23.

On the flip side, the Wireless HOLDRs (WMH) was a big loser. Component Sprint (S) was falling 10% after the big telco said it lost 306,000 subscribers in the quarter ended Dec. 31 and disclosed plans to slash 5,000 jobs. The ETF was falling by $1.24, or 2.1%, to $59.16.

The Internet Infrastructure HOLDRs (IIH) was also declining. Holding BEA Systems (BEAS) was losing 1.6%. The ETF was down 6 cents, or 1.1%, to $5.49.

Stern and Sirius

2007-01-10T12:00:00.000-05:00

Stern and Sirius

Stern and Sirius are still talking dirty these days. Though, Howard Stern just received another stock bonus from Sirius Satellite Radio -- this one worth $89 million. Stern's racy radio show helped Sirius end 2006 with 6 million subscribers -- 2.5 million more than analysts projected before Stern came aboard with a five-year, $500 million contract.

Investing Proves Popular in 2007

2007-01-10T11:55:00.000-05:00

Investing strategies that counter recession prove popular

Rather what all the 2007 predictions on the ecomony are. We still have a worrisome culture going on. But, let's remember the stories of 2006 that could help us look into more of where or what 2007 could bring us. We are hear to tell you...Forget what economists predict and forget the hype you get from Wall Street. Whether there is a recession or not in 2007 there is likely to be a flight to more-conservative investments among mainstream portfolio savers. You don't have to search too hard around the globe to find a flashpoint, and you can assess for yourself the chances that one of them will ignite next year. Lots of people were hot on commodities in 2006; the hot commodity in 2007 might just be fear. Oh, the No. 1 Personal Finance story this year:

Investment using automatical withdrawal

2007-01-09T16:16:00.000-05:00

Investment using automatical withdrawal

You know how you pay your gas bill, your phone bill, each month using electric billing automatically? This saves on not having to write a check address the envelope each month. Well, why not invest the same way?

There's an addictional benefits to investing small amounts say $50 on a regular basis (also called dollar-cost averaging): You may actually invest more than you would if you plunked down a lump sum, and at more opportune times. When you're dollar-cost averaging, you're putting dollars to work no matter what's going on in the market. You have effectively put on blinders against short-term market swings: Whether the market is going up or going down, $100 (or whatever amount you choose to invest) is going into your fund every month no matter what. That's discipline. Would you be able to write a check for $100 if your fund had lost 15% the previous month? Maybe not. But that would mean $100 less working for you when your investments rebounded.

For example, an investor who put in $600 up front in January would have gotten 60 shares at $10 per share. Those shares were worth $12 in June, so her investment was worth $720. If she had dollar-cost averaged her investment, putting in $100 per month, she would have purchased some of her shares on the cheap and wound up with 62.1 shares in June. At $12 per share, she would have had $745.20--$25 more than if she had invested a lump sum at the beginning.

Be careful about using a dollar-cost averaging program if you use a broker or advisor to buy and sell shares, however. If you're paying a front-end load, you'll pay that amount on each and every investment. Perhaps more important, by making smaller purchases you might not be eligible for sales-charge discounts that are frequently available to those who are investing larger sums.

Shaq is into investing check this out!

2007-01-09T16:11:00.000-05:00

You have to check this out! That's right Shaq's selling his pad! And it's only selling for $35,000,000. That's right this beautiful 19,440 square feet, 8 bedroom, 11 full and 3 half baths! Why you want or need more bathrooms than bedrooms we still don't know.

This house was bought through a trust in 2004 for $18,800,000 according to public records. He then tried to turn around and listed the property less than one year later for $32,000,000. A short time later, the house was taken off the market. And then it was put back on the market in late 2006...for $3,000,000 more than before! Yes children, this man thinks he's entitled to a $16,000,000 profit after less than three years of owning the home. We know the real estate has been insane in Miami the last few years, but it has not been this insane. And who knows if Shaq will get is investment or money back. Read the more of the story!

Apple just keeps going!

2007-01-09T16:06:00.000-05:00

Apple Just Keeps Going

Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs on Tuesday made the company's long-awaited jump into the mobile phone business and renamed the company to just "Apple Inc.," reflecting its increasing focus on consumer electronics.

The iPhone, which starts at $499, is controlled by touch, plays music, surfs the Internet and runs the Macintosh computer operating system. Jobs said it will "reinvent" the telecommunications sector and "leapfrog" past the current generation of hard-to-use smart phones.

"Every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything," he said during his keynote address at the annual Macworld Conference and Expo. "It's very fortunate if you can work on just one of these in your career. ... Apple's been very fortunate in that it's introduced a few of these."

He said the name change is meant to reflect the fact that Apple has matured from a computer manufacturer to a full-fledged consumer electronics company.

"I didn't sleep a wink last night," he said. "I was so excited."

During his speech, Jobs also unveiled a TV set-top box that allows people to send video from their computers and announced the number of songs sold on its iTunes Music Store has topped 2 billion.

Apple shares jumped more than 6 percent on the announcements, while the stock of rival smart-phone makers plunged.

Jobs demonstrated the iPhone's music capabilities by playing "Lovely Rita, Meter Maid," from the Beatles' "Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band," as the album's psychedelic album art graced a wide-screen monitor.

IPhone uses a patented touch-screen technology Apple is calling "multi-touch."

"We're going to use a pointing device that we're all born with," Jobs said. "It works like magic. ... It's far more accurate than any touch display ever shipped. It ignores unintended touches. It's super smart."

The phone automatically synchs your media -- movies, music, photos -- through Apple's iTunes Music Store. The device also synchs e-mail content, Web bookmarks and nearly any type of digital content stored on your computer.

"It's just like an iPod," Jobs said, "charge and synch."

The phones, which will operate exclusively on AT&T Inc.'s Cingular wireless network, will start shipping in June. A 4-gigabyte model will cost $499, while an 8-gigabyte iPhone will be $599, Jobs said.

IPhone is less than a half-inch thin -- less than almost any phone on the market today. It comes with a 2-megapixel digital camera built into the back, as well as a slot for headphones and a SIM card.

In a demonstration Tuesday, Jobs slid his finger across the display to reveal a home screen and then scrolled through a list of songs.

To make a call, users can tap out the number on an onscreen keypad or scroll through their contacts and dial with a single touch.

Apple is also introducing what it calls "visual voicemail," so users can jump to the most important messages rather than have to listen to all of them in order.

The phone supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless technology and can detect location from Global Positioning System satellites. It also can send and display e-mail and text messages. Apple is partnering with Yahoo Inc. on Web-based e-mail and Google Inc. on maps.

With a few finger taps, Jobs demonstrated how to pull up a Google Maps site and find the closest Starbucks to the Moscone Center. He then prank-called the cafe and ordered 4,000 lattes to go before quickly hanging up.

"My initial reaction is that this product actually lives up to the extensive hype, and I'm not easily impressed," said Avi Greengart, mobile device analyst for the research firm Current Analysis.

Also Tuesday, Jobs said Apple will begin taking orders immediately for the $299 video box called Apple TV. It will ship next month.

The gadget is designed to bridge computers and television sets so users can more easily watch their downloaded movies on a big screen. A prototype of the gadget was displayed by Jobs in September when Apple announced it would sell TV shows and movies through its iTunes online store.

The product could be as revolutionary to digital movies as Apple's iPod music player was to digital music. Both devices liberate media from the computer, allowing people to enjoy digital files without being chained to a desktop or laptop.

"It's really, really easy to use," Jobs told the crowd at San Francisco's Moscone Center before demonstrating the system with a video clip of "The Good Shepherd." "It's got the processing horsepower to do the kinds of things we like to do."

Apple TV will come with a 40-gigabyte hard drive that stores up to 50 hours of video. It features an Intel Corp. microprocessor and can handle videos, photos and music streamed from up to five computers within the wireless range.

Jobs also said Apple has sold more than 2 billion songs on its popular iTunes music download service, catapulting the company into the top ranks of music sellers worldwide. Apple, which sells 58 songs per second, or 5 million songs a day, sells more songs than Amazon.com and ranks behind only Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Target as a music retailer.

"We couldn't be happier with the growth rate of iTunes," Jobs said.

He said Apple will sell digital movies from Paramount. Apple has partnered with Disney for several months, offering about 100 movies on iTunes. With Paramount's selection, it will have 250 movies available for downloading on the site.

With Tuesday's launches, it remains to be seen whether the leading seller of digital music players can take will find it as easy to jump into the phone business. Apple could use a megahit along the lines of its iconic iPod to divert investors' attention from the stock options-backdating scandal that has tainted its reputation.

The backdating of stock options, which has been widespread among Silicon Valley companies, involves pegging stock options to favorable grant dates in the past to boost the recipients' award. It isn't necessarily illegal, but securities laws require companies to properly disclose the practice in their accounting and settle any charges that may result.

In a December filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Apple said Jobs was aware of, or recommended the selection of, some favorable grant dates but he neither benefited financially from them nor "appreciated the accounting implications."

Apple shares were up $5.71 to $91.18 in afternoon trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The stock has traded in a 52-week range of $50.16 to $93.16. Meanwhile, shares of other smart-phone makers slid: Treo-maker Palm Inc. dropped 4.7 percent, BlackBerry's Research In Motion Ltd. lost 6.4 percent and Motorola Inc. shed 1 percent.

GPS for 2007

2007-01-08T15:20:00.000-05:00

GPS units for 2007
What will be next with all this tracking of the GPS for 2007.

This holiday and even into the 2007 GPS technology is on the radar for lots of people, teens, and even families. Noting that GPS sales were up 66% last year and we think they will continue to rise. Check out what some of the leading GPS companies are offering these days:

Garmin - Garmin we believe is on top of the GPS game and now has just released the Astro Dog Tracking System. This sleek design is targeting hunters which is a handheld GPS unit combining a 5-inch antenna and a dog collar. This is allowing dog owners to track their dogs' anywhere and everywhere. So no matter if your duck hunting or racoon hunting you will know where you dog is at all times. While this is first targeted at hunters the dog industry and dog lovers could be a hot idea this upcoming year. Garmin is stating it should be ready in June 2007 and will come out costing right around $649.

Garmin also released the Nuvi 680 ($999), and this is the top of the line GPS unit. This GPS unit is first ever to have MSN Direct Service providing up-to-the-minute traffic, weather, real-time gas prices, and movie times. The Garmin Nuvi 580 provides the services, too, for $799.

Magellan - This company is coming out with the first pocket-size Crossover GPS. This new Crossover GPS unit is handing and can be used for just about anything. Things such as hiking, on-foot outdoor travels, in-car navigation and etc. The Crossover GPS contains topographical maps for all 50 states, Canada, Puerto Rico, and Mexico and retails for $549.

TomTom - They products continue to drop as now the TomTom One is now currently only $399.

The 10 Hottest-Selling Mutual Funds to be looking at this 2007

2007-01-08T14:55:00.000-05:00

The 10 Hottest-Selling Mutual Funds to be looking at this 2007

American Funds Growth Fund of America (AGTHX)
American Funds Capital World Growth & Income (CWGIX)
American Funds Capital Income Builder (CAIBX)
American Funds EuroPacific Growth (AEPGX)
Dodge & Cox International Stock (DODFX)
Vanguard Total Stock Market Index (VTSMX)
Fidelity Diversified International (FDIVX)
PHarbor Bond (HABDX)
American Funds Fundamental Investors (ANCFX)
Davis New York Venture (NYVTX)
Selected American (SLADX).

Monday's Stock ideas

2007-01-08T14:03:00.000-05:00

Check out the stock rumors...10 Rumors That Could Rock Stocks

Here another 7 stocks ideas for today. Check them out here.

The only stock they both have up is Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - News). AAPL's PowerRating is 5. Apple will announce that Steve Jobs will be taking a leave of absence from the company.

In a recent polls at thestreet.com

2007-01-08T13:34:00.000-05:00

In a recent poll at thestreet.com they asked over 2500 people three simple questions that everyone in today's market wants to know.

1. What would best describe your stance heading into the coming week of trading?

Bullish 44.85%
Bearish 26.44%
Neutral 28.7%

2 Which of these sectors do you think is set to move up in the coming week?

The top several sectors were as followed:

Integrated Oil 8.86%
Biotechnology 8.51%
Energy Equipment & Services 7.2%
Airlines 4.43%
Computers and Peripherals 6.69%
Energy Equipment & Services 7.2%
Internet, Software Services 6.92%
Investment Bankers and Brokers 5.85%
Pharmaceuticals 5.5%
Precious Metals 5.5%

3 Which of these sectors do you think is set to move down in the coming week?

Integrated Oil 16.58%
Homebuilding 13.89%
Precious Metals 11.52%
Energy Equipment & Services 10.09%

Herbalife (HLF)

2007-01-08T12:56:00.000-05:00

After last weeks ending of Herbalife (HLF) stock getting hammered by what was a piece of news that's not even all bad compared to what other companies have gone through as of lately. Though, Herbalife (HLF) was amont the NYSE's biggerst losers and not we are not talking about the Biggest Loser on NBC sorry! We are talking about stock market losers of a stock that lost 20% due to a cut in sales for 2007.

For the recently ended fourth quarter, Herbalife said it expects sales of $482.7 million to $484.7 million, in line with Thomson First Call's average analyst estimate of $488.3 million. The company expects earnings to be within its previously announced forecast of 52 cents to 55 cents a share.

Looking ahead, Herbalife lowered its 2007 sales growth forecast because of slower-than-expected growth in Mexico. The company expects sales to rise 6% to 10%, compared with an earlier projection of 10% to 15%. Herbalife still expects earnings of $2.40 to $2.47 a share for the year. Shares were trading down $7.95 to $31.35.

Is Herbalife still a buy? Well, that's the question, but we would like to bring this up to at least look into this stock alittle deeper.

We feel that here are some facts that make it still an interesting stock. The company Herbalife (HLF) is reaffirming its previous guidance of $2.40 to $2.47 in earnings per share. However, those results would reflect sales growth of between 6% and 10%, combined with improved operating margins and a lower tax rate. The company previously expected a 10% to 15% increase in sales.

Looking at current sales trends, the company predicts slower sales growth in Mexico than it previously estimated. Those results should be partially offset by sales growth in the U.S. and several other countries, the company says.

Herbalife (HLF) expects to earn 50 cents to 55 cents a share in the first quarter of 2007, excluding expenses related to its so-called realignment for growth initiative. Analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call were expecting the company to earn 58 cents a share in the quarter.

What do you think? Buy? Sell? Hold? Keep looking for a different stock?

Markets Closed to Honor Gerald Ford

2007-01-02T09:21:00.000-05:00

U.S. Stock Markets Are Closed Today for National Day of Mourning for Gerald Ford

NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. stock markets are closed today to observe the national day of mourning for former President Gerald Ford.

The first trading week of the year may be a short one, but it may help determine whether the stock market's record-breaking run will continue or melt down in 2007.

The three days will be filled with data on employment, the manufacturing and service sectors, and sales figures from retailers and automakers. These will provide clues to Wall Street's big question: Is economic growth still cooling, or starting to heat up?

During the last trading week of 2006, despite thin holiday trading volumes, the Dow Jones industrial average rose above 12,500 for the first time after a promising report on new home sales suggested the economy may be turning around. If the first week of January brings good news, the Dow could hurtle further into record territory, extending its fourth-quarter rally.

Hearty economic growth may not line investors' pockets, however, if it leads the Federal Reserve to believe Americans can withstand an interest rate hike. Such a move by policy makers has the potential to stop the market's rally because of fears that higher rates will crimp consumer spending and deal a further blow to the housing market by making mortgages harder to pay off.

ECONOMIC DATA

The first trading day of 2007 will kick off with the Insitute for Supply Management's December report on the manufacturing sector -- an area of the economy that cooled in 2006 due to a slowing housing market and struggling automakers, but that didn't faze the stock market.

The market expects the ISM's manufacturing index to come in at 50, indicating neither expansion nor contraction. That's above November's reading of 49.5; that was the first time the index showed contraction in nearly four years.

Investors will also be reading the Federal Open Market Committee's minutes from its meeting on Dec. 12, when the policy makers decided to keep interest rates unchanged. The markets widely believe the Fed will leave the benchmark rate steady again at 5.25 percent, as it's done since August, when it meets Jan. 18. But expectations of a hike later in the year could rise if the minutes released Wednesday express heightened optimism about growth and concern about inflation.

Wednesday will also bring November data on construction spending and factory orders, as well as December auto sales figures. The market expects 2007 to be the year that Toyota Motor Corp. usurps General Motors Corp.'s title as the world's largest automaker.

On Thursday, the country's largest retailers announce their sales figures for December -- the biggest shopping month of the year, and a bellwether for consumer spending. Investors may be in for a disappointment; retail analysts brought their holiday predictions down a notch after Christmas, saying that while online and luxury item sales surged, most retailers saw shoppers spending conservatively.

The ISM will also release its December report on the service sector on Thursday. The index is expected to come in at 57.0, slightly below November's reading of 58.9. The service sector stayed strong relative to the manufacturing sector in 2006, suggesting that economic weakness is fairly isolated to the housing- and auto-related industries.

The Labor Department caps the week with its reports on December nonfarm payrolls and the unemployment rate. The market expects the data Friday to show payrolls rose by 110,000 and unemployment held at 4.5 percent. The U.S. jobs picture has remained fairly stable in the face of an economic slowdown, which has helped buoy the stock market's confidence in Americans' spending power.

EARNINGS

After taking a holiday vacation last week from releasing financial results, major corporate earnings will start trickling in again on Thursday.

Wall Street expects Constellation Brands Inc., the world's largest wine maker, to report earnings Thursday of 60 cents a share for its fiscal third quarter. Constellation Brands closed at $28.98 on Friday, after hitting a 52-week high of $29.14 earlier in the session. Its shares hit a 52-week low of $23.32 in April.

Meanwhile, analysts predict herbicide and biotech seed producer Monsanto Co. will report earnings Thursday of 58 cents a share for its fiscal first quarter. The maker of herbicide RoundUp closed at $52.53 on Friday, at the upper end of its 52-week range of $37.91 to $53.49.

Garmin (GRMN)

2006-12-21T14:04:00.000-05:00

Garmin (GRMN) is by far the biggest player in the portable navigation device (PND) market - they have around 50% market share. A dominant position does not necessarily make for a good stock, however. Apparently Garmin's GPS devices are expected to be a hot seller for Christmas this year - not that I was aware people want GPS devices for Christmas - but will Garmin stock help add a little green to the tree? I doubt it because the stock is priced with outrageous expectations from analysts and investors. The risks are as follows:

-Selling prices will be under pressure as PNDs become increasingly commoditized, and this will significantly hurt the bottom line. Simply put, Garmin is getting more and more competition, and the effect is that gross margins have been falling constantly over the past few years. Once upon a time they were 57.7%, last quarter they were 48.7%... I consider this to be an irreversible trend the company will need to deal with, yet analyst models assume no further decline in selling prices (and hence gross margins). This is the opposite of what happens with technology, it gets cheaper over time - think about computers.

-Garmin has no recurring revenues. They only make money upon the purchase of their product, not beyond that. If you want a comparable company, think about Dell. Both make money on the purchase, and need their product to break/become useless before the customer buys another one. This is the exact opposite of what you want in a company. Other tech stocks have recurring revenues (think Apple's iTunes, or needing Research in Motion to give your Blackberry service), but Garmin only profits at the point of sale. This will be a significant problem for growing revenues and profits in the future.

-Valuation. GRMN is trading for 40x trailing annual free cash flow, or more than twice the expected growth rate from analysts (which I expect to be higher than will materialize). According to the DCF model, Garmin needs to grow FCF at 20% annually over the next 5 years, and still be able to justify a 30x FCF multiple to be even fairly valued (that means no upside from the current price of $50). I see little to no chance of such a scenario occurring, especially considering Point 1 about declining pricing power leading to lower selling prices.
Garmin is not a bad company. They are very good at what they do. The stock is simply too overhyped thanks to the "it has a cool gadget, the stock must be great" groupthink. I expect to see GRMN head toward $40, unless the entire premium gets wiped out and it goes to the $25-30 fair value range. Either way, I don't think its the kind of good, undervalued stock you want to be in.

One more reason...Garmin's latest holiday commercial now airing on various networks throughout North America.

Akamai (AKAM)

2006-12-20T12:36:00.000-05:00

Akamai (AKAM) is a company that provides content delivery network (cdn) services to enable websites to transmit data faster. Akamai was founded by an MIT professor and several of his grad students, went public during the tech bubble, and went from a high of $345 down to a low of 56 cents... quite a roller coaster. This year the stock is up 160%, having settled at $55 today.

Akamai's business performance is certainly been impressive. They have managed to grow revenues over the last several years at a clip of greater than 30%, and the bottom line growth has shown that they have excellent scale of their business model. My foremost concern with AKAM is that the analyst's consensus growth target for the next 5 years is 32%, meaning that Akamai will quadruple current income by the end of 2011. Possible? Maybe. Probable? No.

A worrisome indicator that Akamai might be slipping is Return on Capital (RoIC) numbers, which suggest that the company is losing something in terms of effectiveness - perhaps because Akamai is facing decent competition now, with the potential for much more in the future. Akamai relies on a proprietary algorithm (think Google for data transmission) which will lose protection in 2018, but there is no guarantee that some other person or company won't come along with a better method of execution. I think the operating risks for Akamai are significant, and the economic moat is narrow to non-existent. Few technology companies live up to expectations, not because they aren't good companies, but because there is a certain irrationality surrounding them... which brings us to the valuation of AKAM.

If Akamai grows its bottom line at the analyst-expected rate of 32% per annum, then the implied free cash flow exit multiple is 42x (AKAM currently trades at 90x ttm FCF), using a 12% discount factor and the current price of $55. Akamai needs to substantially exceed those targets in order to have any upside on the valuation, however, so keep in mind what the company is up against. For more conservative valuation purposes, I am going to assume they have some earnings misses, grow the bottom line around 25% per year (still exceptionally high), and justify and end FCF multiple of 30x. That scenario gives AKAM a fair value of $30/share, although leaving a sufficient margin of safety suggests holding off unless AKAM sees the low $20s.
I realize that alot of technology bulls will say that you can't value a firm like Akamai using old-economy DCF models, but following the cash eliminates much of the risk of buying stocks that do nothing but burn money and destroy value. In terms of industry and price, AKAM is clearly outside of my comfort level. I advise anyone considering investing in it to do their due diligence, and consider a research report released by Piper Jaffray, where they say that although the shares likely have some upside, they appear to be fully valued, if not overvalued... and that was written when AKAM was at $49.

Sun Microsystems release Java Standard Edition 6

2006-12-12T11:41:00.000-05:00

Sun Microsystems has released the latest version of their Java development kit. This Java kit will make it easier for developers to mix JavaJava technology with other languages such as PHP, Python, Ruby and JavaScript. Sun's idea was to solve the developers problem of what is said "developers wanted to use other languages with the java. Until now the developers were not able to create this great mix application. Sun has created a collection of scripting engines on its Web site, and Java SE 6 includes a preconfigured version of Mozilla's open-source Rhino JavaScript engine.

"Java SE 6 is an extremely significant release for us," said Jean Elliott, Sun's senior director of Java platform product marketing. She drew particular attention to community participation in the platform's development. For the first time, hundreds of non-Sun developers had some input into the Java SE development process, beginning in September 2004 as Sun released Java SE 5.

Over two years in the making, Sun Microsystems is due to release the latest version of its Java Platform Standard Edition (Java SE) software Monday, placing particular emphasis on the application development platform's support for other scripting languages.

Java SE 6 comes with support for Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system, the business release of which made its debut late last month.

Yahoo's Panama Gives Semel Chance to Please Investors

2006-12-08T23:44:00.000-05:00

By Jonathan Thaw

Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Yahoo! Inc. Chief Executive Officer Terry Semel, having failed to appease investors with a management reshuffle, may get a second chance next year with new ad software designed to regain ground lost to Google Inc.

Known as Project Panama, the program is slated to be fully operational by March, three months behind schedule. The software, which marketers are starting to use, emulates Google and may help Yahoo generate more revenue from each Internet search.

Yahoo is releasing the new technology to spur sales and reverse a 32 percent slide in its stock price this year. As part of that effort, Semel this week reorganized Yahoo into three units and promoted Chief Financial Officer Susan Decker to oversee ad sales. Yahoo shares fell on concern that the changes may not be enough, prompting investors to look to Panama.

``While this technology might not allow Yahoo to overtake Google, it may help narrow the gap,'' said Scott Kessler, an analyst at Standard & Poor's in New York.

Panama improves the way Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo displays Internet search ads and may generate an additional $115 million of sales in the second half of next year, Merrill Lynch & Co. analyst Justin Post said in a Nov. 30 note to investors.

Shares of Yahoo fell 23 cents to $26.63 at 4 p.m. in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading.

Mark Cuban Buys read complete article...

A Great List of ETF 's

2006-12-05T14:39:00.000-05:00

Standard Index Funds
QQQQ - NDX 100
SPY - SP500
DIA - Dow Jones Industrials
MDY - SP Mid Cap 400
IWM - Russell 2000

Short/Bear Funds (Allows you to short in IRA/401K accounts)

PSQ - Short QQQ Inverse of the NASDAQ-100
SH - Short S&P500 Inverse of the S&P 500
DOG - Short Dow30 Inverse of the DJIA
MYY - Short MidCap400 Inverse of the S&P Mid Cap 400

2x Margin Built In (Allows you to leverage IRA/401K)

QLD - Double the NASDAQ-100
SSO - Double the S&P 500
DDM - Double the DJIA
MVV - Double the S&P MidCap 400

QID - Double the inverse of the NASDAQ-100
SDS - Double the inverse of the S&P 500
DXD - Double the inverse of the DJIA
MZZ - Double the inverse of the S&P MidCap 400

Countries (Allows you to invest in other economies)

EWJ - Japan
EWT - Taiwan
EWH - Hong Kong
EWB - Brazil
EWU - UK
EWW - Mexico
EWM - Malaysia
EWS - Singapore
EWC - Canada
EWY - South Korea
EWP - Spain
EWA - Australia
EWP - Pacific ex. Japan
EWG - Germany
EWI - Italy
EWL - Switzerland
EWQ - France
EWD - Sweden
EWK - Belgium
EWO - Austria
EWN - Netherlands

Stock Market Sector Funds (Sector Baskets)

OIH - Oil Services Sector
XLE - Oil Sector
XLI - Industrial Sector
IGE - Natural Resources Sector
IYR - US Real Estate Sector
XLU - Utility Sector
SMH - Semiconductor Sector
XLF - Financial Sector
RTH - Retail Sector
TTH - Telecom Sector
WMH - Wireless Sector
SWH - Software Sector
XLK - Technology Sector
HHH - Internet Sector
XLB - Materials Sector
XLY - Consumer Discretionary Sector
PPH - Pharmaceuticals Sector
XLV - Health Care Sector
IGN - Networking Sector
BBH - Biotech Sector

Bond Funds

SHY - 1-3 yr treasury bond
IEF - 7-10 yr treasury bond
TLT - 20+ yr treasury bond
LQD - corporate bond

Commodities

GLD - Gold
SLV - Silver
USO - Oil

Currencies

FXA - Rydex CurrencyShares Australian Dollar Trust
ETF
FXB - Rydex CurrencyShares British Pound Sterling
ETF
FXC - Rydex CurrencyShares Canadian Dollar Trust ETF
FXE - Euro Currency Trust ETF
FXF - Rydex CurrencyShares Swiss Franc Trust ETF
FXM - Mexican Peso Trust ETF
FXS - Rydex CurrencyShares Swedish Krona Trust ETF

More information...

Omnivision (OVTI) is a fabless semiconductor company that focuses on designing imaging chips for (mainly) consumer electronics.

2006-12-04T13:00:00.000-05:00

Omnivision (OVTI) is a fabless semiconductor company that focuses on designing imaging chips for (mainly) consumer electronics.

In the words of the company:
Its image-sensing devices, referred under the name CameraChips, are used to capture an image and used in various commercial and consumer mass-market applications. The CameraChips are used in various consumer applications, such as camera cell phones, digital still and video cameras, personal computer camera applications, and interactive video and digital toy cameras. In addition, CameraChips are integrated into security and surveillance products and analog toy cameras, automotive products, and medical imaging devices. Further, it designs and develops software drivers for various computer operating systems, as well as embedded operating systems.

OVTI is trading near $13.60 and has a market cap around $750 million, thanks to Friday's 16% plunge off an earnings report. Part of the reason attributed to the drop was fears about pricing pressures hurting margins. Contracting margins are pretty much implied whenever you talk about semis, and although OVTI has experienced that over the last several years earnings and cash flow have continued to grow at a rapid clip, with adjusted net income doubling and adjusted free cash flow tripling in the last three and a half years. Based off market cap., OVTI trades for 8.5x trailing earnings, and 8x trailing free cash flow. But market cap only tells half the story; as Omnivision has over $380 million in net cash, or about $7 per share - this means you are getting nearly half of your share price in cash. Now when you consider that Omnivision actually has an enterprise value of $360 million, the stock is actually trading for under 5x earnings and under 4x free cash flow... both of those numbers are phenomenal.
Just because OVTI appears dirt cheap doesn't mean its a bad company, on the contrary, it has generated nearly $100 million in annual free cash flow over the last few years. Omnivision also has developed a new chip that changes the way autofocusing is processed, which allows for much quicker and clearer imaging. The all-digital process has the potential to eliminate any sort of manual focusing traditionally done with cameras, and I'm fairly sure that somewhere in my research I read that Omnivision has patentied the technology, which should be ready for commercial use within a few quarters. The company's expansion in security and medical imaging is also offering growth opportunities beyond the consumer electronics market of cameraphones and video recorders, so there is plenty of potential growth on top of that excellent financial footing.
Running a quick revenue and earnings projection concludes that top line growth of 15% over the next 5 years is manageable, with net income growing about 17% over that time period. The lastest consensus estimate from Wall Street was 20%, but I think you are going to see some waffling because of the quarterly disappointment... and I like to be conservative.

According to the valuation model, OVTI is priced for no free cash flow growth over the next five years, and has a terminal valuation of 5x FCF. Recall that OVTI is trading for just under 8x FCF right now... which I believe is extremely cheap in itself. But anyways, from the reverse engineering standpoint, OVTI is priced as being a company that will see no more growth, and will end up being valued at a 20% free cash flow yield. Think those pricing assumptions give you some margin of safety?

On the more realistic (but still conservative) side of pricing, lets assume that Omnivision manages to grow free cash flow at about 10% per year, or about 60% of what is forecast by a quick growth projection (I choose 60% because that leaves a 20% margin of safety and 20% for "excess return"). At 10% growth, and an end cash flow yield of about 15% (which matches the steep 15% discount rate I am applying to account for riskiness), OVTI appears to be an $18-19 stock, which would give an appreciation of about 35%.
If we increase our assumptions about the growth rate for Omnivision to 12%, and allow for an exit multiple of 8x FCF, a 15% discount rate results in OVTI being valued around $21, or a potential 50% gainer. I would argue, however, that OVTI's recent sharp drop coupled with the huge cash position makes OVTI less of a risk now, and worthy of a lower discount rate - 12% for the discount makes OVTI appear to be 75% undervalued. Basically, its hard to justify this stock going much lower, and very easy to see this one running up toward $20.

One additional fact to note is that Omnivision does an exceptional job at creating value from invested capital; EBIT RoIC was 100% over the last four quarters. Although RoIC has been slipping slightly on a sequential basis, taking a slightly longer term time frame sees free cash flow RoIC climbing from 28% three years ago to over 75% today. This means, in simple terms, that for each dollar Omnivision has invested in its business today, it returns 75 cents in cash after everything else is accounted and paid for. Omnivision hasn't been skimping on spending for the future either; outlays for Research and Development and Capital Expenditures continue to increase, and as long as Omnivision can continue generating such high returns on capital, it looks to be well positioned to continue growing its bottom line.

Final thoughts: I think its a strong buy in the mid-$13s where it is now. If it goes lower, that just makes it look even more attractive.

Learn a Major Key of Cutting Your Losses Early!

2006-11-30T10:51:00.000-05:00

One major importance while investing (including professionals) is cutting your losses early and before your in the whole complete. One problem can be not spending enough time to research and critically thinking through investments risks. To many times I see people spending all kinds of time of planning for the winning stock thats going to hit a grand slam for them. But they don't even think once about how or what percentage do we sell and take our losses or winnings.

The Factors that Really Drive Investors

People really are inconsistent in the thinking of investment risks. People think this is just a given with all the information out there...and you just have to find the low investment risks and find the highest return. Though, our studies show us something completely different.

Though, it's the way you view and look at things is a major key in this investing ideas of cutting your losses early. You must really start thinking about or driven by is it actually investing risk? Though, through our finding we have came to understand it's actually the loss. So now, your asking well what's the difference? Great questions and let us answer this question.

Here is an good example, you have to investment choices:

* Scenerio one: 80% potential of winning $4,000 versus a 20% potential of earning nothing
* Scenerio two: 100% potential of receiving $3,000.

Now to many this is a no brainer right of what you would choose? While the scenerio one is pontentially the better investment (with a pontential "expectation" of $3,200), 80% of people choose the scenerio two the 100% money. This means, they aren't willing to risk a small investment profit for a potentially bigger one.

Now let's look at the investment scenerios from a loss perspective, with the same scenerios:

* 80% pontential of losing $4,000 versus a 20% chance of breaking even, or
* 100% pontential of losing $3,000.

Now look at this closely, believe or not over 92% of people choose the first scenerio. They are willing to take this investment. This means, that 92% of the people will do just about anything to avoid an investment loss. When the investments involve losing money, 92% of us are risk-seekers, not risk reluctant.

Now we hope we have opened some eyes with this little example and investment scenerio. Also we hope to show you that a lot of us are not as consistent in our thinking in considering investment risks. And this kind of thinking can really come back to hurt you in your investments.

Investing lossess cut early...remember a major key or the golden rule

A major key or golden rule on investing is to "cut your losses early, short, and let your winners ride." Almost every successful investor in the world has his discipline and sticks by this rule - however, please not as well there are very few successful investors who regularly beat the markets. For the rest of us average joes (about 99% of investors) following this major key or golden rule seems too difficult. Look at what Peter Bernstein says in Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk, "It is not so much that people hate uncertainty - but rather, they hate losing... A loss taken is an acknowledgement of error." That says it better then we could.

It's major key or golden rule is not just for the stock market. It's in all of life. Check out this example of investment risk, from Peter Bernstein...

* "Imagine that a rare disease is breaking out and is expected to kill 600 people. Two different programs are available to deal with the threat. If Program A is adopted, 200 people will be saved. If Program B is adopted there is a 33% probability that everyone will be saved and a 67% probability that no one will be saved.
* "Which program would you choose? If most of us are risk-averse, rational people will prefer Plan A's certainty of saving 200 lives over Plan B's gamble, which has the same mathematical expectancy but involves taking the risk of a 67% chance that everyone will die. [When given the choice], 72% of people chose the risk-averse response represented by Program A."
* "Now consider the identical problem posed differently. If Program C is adopted, 400 of the 600 people will die, while Program D entails a 33% probability that no one will die and a 67% probability that 600 people will die. Note that the first of the two choices is now expressed as 400 deaths rather than 200 survivors, while the second program offers a 33% chance that no one will die. ...78% of people quizzed were risk seekers and opted for the gamble: they could not tolerate the prospect of the sure loss of 400 lives."

Why Avoiding Hugh Investment Losses Is Key to Your Strategy

We, as investors, have to understand that we are not always going to know it all. What we are going to lose or gain. We need to be in the position whereby we are avoiding investment losses as much as possible. However, first, if we are to succeed in investing and stock market, we must learn to take cut our investment losses early. And this is because a small loss can't be allowed to become a BIG loss.

Smart investors come to understand the need to go against what most of the time feels natural. And that means learning to cut investment losses early, and learning to let winners ride. Put simply, the way you make money is to combine a few small losses with big winners.

In order to win the war on the street, you've got to learn to cut your losses. You need to man up and admit you're wrong.. That means recognizing the potential nature of human instinct and cut investment losses. And it means cutting your investment losses early before they can become big losses. It's never to late to start good discipline, especially in the investing!

Happy Holiday Investing!!

Investing Focus
www.investingfocus.com
"Your Start to a Future Financial Gain"

China Technology Announced Proposed Annual Meeting of Shareholders and Substantial Shareholder Restructuring

2006-11-30T10:41:00.000-05:00

HONG KONG, Nov. 30 /Xinhua-PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- China Technology Development Group Corporation CTDC ("CTDC" or "the Company") today announced the Company's Board of Directors ("the Board") convened a meeting attended by all board members on November 27, 2006. The Board reviewed and unanimously agreed that the 2006 Annual General Meeting of the shareholders (the "Annual Meeting") will be held on December 22 and the close of business on November 28, 2006, New York time, has been fixed as the record date of the Annual Meeting.

The Board also reviewed, approved and proposed for submission to the shareholders during the Annual Meeting, transactions involving the change of substantial shareholders through the sale of outstanding shares by existing substantial shareholders, and issuance of new shares and warrants for the purchase of new shares, by the Company to new investors (the "Proposed Transactions").

A full version of the notice of the Annual Meeting and the shareholders' circular are filed in Form 6-K together with copies of the executed agreements in connection with the Proposed Transactions, which is available at http://www.nasdaq.com/asp/quotes_sec.asp?selected=CTDC&symbol=CTDC .

About CTDC:

CTDC is engaged in information network security and nutraceutical business in the People's Republic of China. CTDC's existing major shareholder is Beijing Holdings Limited, a conglomerate with over $3 billion in total assets beneficially owned by the Beijing People's Municipal Government. For more information, please visit our website at www.chinactdc.com .

Forward-Looking Statement Disclosure

This press release of the Company, which is a foreign private issuer, on Form 6-K contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, and Section 21E of the Securities Act of 1934. These statements relate to future events or the Company's future financial performance. The Company has attempted to identify forward-looking statements by terminology including "anticipates", "believes", "expects", "can", "continue", "could", "estimates", "expects", "intends", "may", "plans", "potential", "predict", "should", or "will" or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. These statements are only predictions, uncertainties and other factors may cause the Company's actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, level of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. The information in this Report on Form 6-K is not intended to project future performance of the Company. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward- looking statements are reasonable, the Company does not guarantee future results, level of activity, performance or achievements. The Company's expectations are as of the date this Form 6-K is filed, and the Company does not intend to update any of the forward-looking statements after the date this Report on Form 6-K is filed to conform these statements to actual results, unless required by law.

Contact:

China Technology Development Group Corporation
Michael Siu, Executive Director, Chief Financial Officer and Secretary
Tel: +852-3112-8461
Email: investor.relations@chinactdc.com
michael.siu@chinactdc.com

Copyright 2006 PRNewswire

Third Wave Announces Launch of Universal Invader(R) Program

2006-11-30T08:28:00.000-05:00

Third Wave Announces Launch of Universal Invader(R) Program

Stocks mentioned in this article
Third Wave Technologies, Inc. (TWTI) Stock Quote, Chart, News

ORLANDO, Fla.,-- Third Wave Technologies Inc. TWTI today announced the launch of its Universal Invader(R) Program, which allows customers to design, build and optimize their own Invader(R) chemistry-based assays.

"Third Wave is pleased to open access to our Invader(R) chemistry, making an already simple, flexible chemistry even easier for customers to use," said Kevin T. Conroy, president and chief executive of Third Wave. "The Universal Invader(R) Program enables Third Wave to better serve our customers by providing them the flexibility to develop tests that meet their specific needs and interests, outside of our standard menu of products."

The program includes web-based Universal Invader(R) design software. The software generates the designs for all oligonucleotides, or DNA probes, needed for customers to build Invader(R) chemistry-based reactions for their specific DNA targets of interest in their own laboratories. Participants in the Universal Invader(R) Program can purchase their design-specific oligonucleotides from a third-party vendor and general purpose reagents, including Third Wave's Cleavase(R) enzyme, directly from the company.

The program utilizes the Third Wave's Invader Plus(R) chemistry, which combines the accuracy and specificity of its Invader(R) chemistry with the sensitivity of PCR sample amplification. Customers can use the Invader Plus(R) chemistry without paying any royalty because the relevant PCR patents expired last year. For more information about the Universal Invader(R) Program, please visit http://www.universalinvader.com .

About Third Wave Technologies

Third Wave develops and markets molecular diagnostic reagents for a variety of DNA and RNA analysis applications to meet the needs of our customers. The company offers a number of products based on its Invader(R) chemistry for clinical testing. Third Wave offers in vitro diagnostic kits, and analyte specific, general purpose, and research use only reagents for nucleic acid analysis. For more information about Third Wave and its products, please visit the company's website at http://www.twt.com .

All statements in this news release that are not historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 as amended. Such forward-looking statements are subject to factors that could cause actual results to differ materially for Third Wave from those projected. Those factors include risks and uncertainties relating to technological approaches of Third Wave and its competitors, product development, manufacturing, market acceptance, cost and pricing of Third Wave products, dependence on collaborative partners and commercial customers, successful performance under collaborative and commercial agreements, competition, the strength of the Third Wave intellectual property, the intellectual property of others and other risk factors identified in the documents Third Wave has filed, or will file, with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Copies of the Third Wave filings with the SEC may be obtained from the SEC Internet site at http://www.sec.gov . Third Wave expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in Third Wave's expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions, or circumstances on which any such statements are based. Third Wave Technologies, Invader and the Third Wave logo are trademarks of Third Wave Technologies, Inc.

Tis the Season to be shopping!

2006-11-28T11:08:00.000-05:00

After a crazy jammed backed weekend of shopping, discounts, giveaways, toys, and so much more! Tis the season, and it's time for all the shoppers to be clicking onto their computers for the later part of finishing up shopping.

It seems to be more competive as ever online this year while more and more companies offering free shipping, more discounts, other great offers this christmas gift giving season.

The tread of shopping online on the Monday after Thanksgiving is growing so big and calling it "Cyber Monday" by many National Retail Federation. Retailers like Circuit City Stores Inc. are stepping up to the plate on "Cyber Monday" by offered special one-day coupons. While, Walmart.com began the fight on Monday offering a five-day special on such online-only items as big as some flat-screen TVs.

To even throw more joy into the season and Cyber Monday, the National Retail Fed. launched a website called CyberMonday.com, where the idea is to pull all the online discounts targeting the cyber monday and through the holiday season from nearly 400 retailers. And the early reports are showing that all the christmas incentives seem to be working.

Meany retailers are already reporting as high as 60 percent increase in website traffic and an 80 percent increase in online sales through noon Monday.

Though the first Monday after Thanksgiving starts the Christmas shopping online season, its reported it will not be the busiest day for retailers. Internet research firm comScore Networks Inc. is predicting the days to come and specificially either Dec. 11 or Dec. 12, making Cyber Monday either the ninth or tenth busiest online shopping day. Last year, the first Monday after Thanksgiving was the ninth busiest day.

Still, Cyber Monday is marking the Christmas shopping season for many merchants for this Holiday season.

As for online holiday sales growth, JupiterResearch forecasts an 18 percent increase for online sales to $32 billion. That is slightly below the 23 percent pace in the previous year.

Analysts are carefully monitoring the rivalry between online-only stores and brick and mortar stores, which are overtaking the lead in the online market share wars. According to comScore, from 2003 to 2005, sales growth for brick and mortar stores' online divisions grew twice the rate of that of online-only merchants.

Stores that operate both e-commerce sites and physical stores are realizing they can "use the Internet to not only sell product but also drive traffic to their stores, " said Gian Fulgoni, chairman of comScore Networks.

Consumer electronics retailer Circuit City offered special coupons just for Monday, including additional savings of $100 on TV purchases of $1,700 and up, as well as an additional $50 savings on home audio systems purchases of $400 and up.

Throughout the holiday season, Circuit City is giving $24 gift cards to customers if their online order is not ready for pick up at the stores in 24 minutes.

Walmart.com, which redesigned its Web site earlier in November, unveiled Monday 50 online only specials offers, from cashere scarves to flat-panel plasma TVs, that will be available through Dec. 1. Carter Cast, CEO of walmart.com, said it will be replacing sold-out items with new offers this week.

Among the most popular items Monday on walmart.com were $289 GPS units by Garmin and 3 megapixel digital cameras by Philips.

The pure online players are fighting back with free shipping and other deals.

Online retailer Amazon.com pushed shoppers to get started early by holding an ongoing poll to select one steeply discounted gift item to be offered in limited supplies beginning on Thanksgiving day, on top of other deals.

Online jewelry retailer Bluenile.com is offering for the first time free overnight shipping to its best customers, a program that will run through Valentine's Day. It also sent out e-mails Monday offering 10 percent discounts to customers through Dec. 7.

Online closeout retailer Overstock.com for the first time offered free shipping offers, which started Thanksgiving Day and ends Tuesday, according to Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock.com.

"We're all competing on shipping promotions," Byrne said.

China Yingxia Reports Third Quarter Revenues

2006-11-22T16:38:00.000-05:00

China Yingxia International, Inc. (OTCBB: CYXI), a developer and manufacturer of health food products in China, today announced that revenue in the third quarter ended September 30, 2006 was $1,857,392 and net income from operations was $742,251. Net income for the quarter including a provision for income taxes was up 349% to $2,958,786 compared with $659,645 in the third quarter of 2005.

Revenue for the nine months ended September 30 of 2006 totaled $5,308,352, up $1,095,196, or approximately 26%, compared to revenue of $4,213,156 in the comparable nine-month period a year earlier. For the nine months ended September 30 of 2006, the company reported net income of $4,668,569, or $0.14 per fully diluted share, an increase of $3,255,283, or approximately 230%, from the comparable nine-month period of 2005.

Ms. Yingxia Jiao, CEO and chairman of CYXI, said, "The strong increase in revenue was attributable to the successful expansion of our product lines and sales network to meet the needs of existing and new customers. Despite achieving lower sales totals for the three-month period of this quarter, we were able to record higher earnings as a result of the partial operating of our soybean product manufacturing lines. Additionally, we were granted the status of a Foreign-Invested Enterprise ('FIE') as we became wholly owned by an U.S. public company during the period ended September 30, 2006. In accordance with applicable Chinese Law, the Company is therefore eligible for an exemption of income tax in PRC for the first two profitable years and a 50% income tax reduction for the next three years. The income tax exemption and reduction can be applied retroactively. In our case, this exemption is applied to fiscal years 2004 and 2005. As result of this change, the Company recognized a total of $2,216,535 as income tax benefit in this period."

About China Yingxia International, Inc.

China Yingxia International, Inc., through its 100%-owned subsidiary, Harbin Yingxia Industrial Group Co., Ltd. ("Yingxia"), is primarily engaged in the development, production and sales of health food products in China. Yingxia is located in the Province of Heilongjiang in mainland China, and it currently has over 180 employees and 3 agricultural production bases. Yingxia's products include fresh cactus and cactus dry power, organic soybean, and Longgu golden rice. Yingxia is currently implementing an aggressive expansion plan which includes the construction of a new production facility of 16,300 square meters. For the year ending 12/31/2005 the Company achieved $6.1 million in sales with a net income of $1.8 million, with $13.3 million in net assets.

For more information about China Yingxia International, Inc. (OTCBB: CYXI), please visit: http://www.Chinayingxia.com.

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995

This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, may involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the company's actual results to be materially different from any future results or performance suggested by the forward-looking statements in this release. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, risks that the results of future performance will not be consistent with the forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statements.

Source: Market Wire (November 22, 2006)

Coral Gold Resources President Louis Wolfin Featured in An Audio Interview On Yahoo Finance Small Cap Centre

2006-11-22T16:32:00.000-05:00

TORONTO, Nov. 22, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- AGORACOM Investor Relations Corp. ("AGORACOM") (www.agoracom.com), is pleased to announce that Coral Gold Resources Ltd. (OTCBB:CGREF) (TSX-V:CGR) (Berlin:GV8) (Frankfurt:GV8) Founder and President Mr. Louis Wolfin, was recently interviewed by the Yahoo! Small Cap Centre (finance.yahoo.ca)

Mr. Wolfin discusses a wide range of topics including the Company's portfolio of strategically located claim blocks along the Battle Mountain-Eureka gold trend in north-central Nevada, the latest drill results and future prospects and initiatives.

The Yahoo! Finance Canada Small Cap Centre focuses specifically on emerging small cap companies. The Yahoo! Small Cap Centre caters to an audience of small cap investors that are in search of exciting and compelling information within the small cap realm.

To access the Small Cap Centre -- Powered By AGORACOM, please visit Yahoo! Finance Canada at http://ca.finance.yahoo.com and scroll through the middle column.

Alternatively, to access the interview page directly, please click on the link below.

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/scp_v3/viewer/index.php?pid=16390&rn=222561&cl=1237543

For all future Coral Gold investor relations needs, investors are asked to visit the Coral Gold IR hub at www.agoracom.com/IR/coralgold where they can post questions and receive answers within the same day, or simply review questions and answers posted by other investors. Alternatively, investors are able to e-mail all questions and correspondence to CGR@agoracom.com where they can also request addition to the investor e-mail list to receive all future press releases and updates in real time.

About Coral Gold Resources Ltd.

Coral Gold has been exploring a portfolio of strategically located claim blocks along the Battle Mountain-Eureka/Cortez gold trend in north-central Nevada. These properties are situated in the active Crescent Valley region, adjoining the large Cortez (Pipeline) gold mine.

To find out more about Coral Gold Resources Ltd. (TSX-V:CGR) (OTCBB:CGREF) (Berlin:GV8) (Frankfurt:GV8), visit our website at www.coralgold.com

About AGORACOM Investor Relations Corp. (www.agoracom.com) (www.agoraIR.com)

AGORACOM Investor Relations Corp. (AGORACOM) is North America's leading outsourced investor relations firm for small-cap companies. AGORACOM's exclusive IR HUB delivers two-way investor relations and communications, providing 100% transparency accessibility.

The AGORACOM Investor Relations logo is available at http://www.primezone.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=2200

Safe Harbor Statement:

Statements included in this news release, which are not historical in nature, are intended to be, and are hereby identified as "Forward-Looking Statements" for purposes of safe harbor provided by Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-Looking Statements may be identified by words including "anticipate," "await," envision," "foresee," "aim at," "plans," "believe," "intends," "estimates" "expects" and "projects" including without limitation, those relating to the company's future business prospects, and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the Forward-Looking Statements. Readers are directed to the company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for additional information and a presentation of the risks and uncertainties that may affect the company's business and results of operations. www.sec.gov.

CONTACT: Coral Gold Resources Ltd.
Louis Wolfin, Director
(604) 682-3701
ir@coralgold.com
www.coralgold.com

AGORACOM Investor Relations
Investor Relations
CGR@Agoracom.com
www.agoracom.com/IR/CoralGold

Source: PrimeZone (November 22, 2006 - 10:35 AM EST)

News by QuoteMedia
www.quotemedia.com

Google (goog) is pumped up over $500

2006-11-21T13:55:00.000-05:00

Google Inc.'s (goog) stock price surpassed $500 for the first time Tuesday, marking another milestone in a rapid rise that has catapulted the Internet search leader into the corporate elite.

The GOOG stock symbol just keeps driving it's way up the market! It's even now reaching the 507 mark just minutes ago in trading.

Google is now valued at right around $154 billion just eight years after former Stanford University graduate students Larry Page and Sergey Brin started the business in a Silicon Valley garage.

The Mountain View-based company is now Silicon Valley's most valuable business, eclipsing the likes of Intel Corp., the world's largest computer chip maker, and Hewlett-Packard Co., a high-tech pioneer that also famously started in a garage 67 years ago.

Google's remarkable success has minted Page and Brin, both 33, as multibillionaires along with their hand-picked chief executive, Eric Schmidt.

Hundreds of other Google employees are millionaires because so many investors want to own a piece of a company that has become the Internet's most powerful financial force while building a brand so ingrained in society that it has become part of the English language.

It took slightly more than a year for Google's shares to travel from $400 to $500 -- the stock's longest journey from one major milestone to the next since the company priced its initial public offering at $85 in August 2004.

The shares topped $100 on their first day of trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market, then crossed $200 in less than three months. The stock broke through $300 another seven months later in June 2005 and then breached $400 on Nov. 17 last year.

The latest spurt of optimism appeared to reflect a belief that Google will quickly introduce ways to mine more online advertising revenue from its just-completed $1.65 billion acquisition of YouTube Inc. Google used its stock to finance the deal.

Google currently has made most of its money selling brief, written ads that are posted alongside search results and other online content, but management believes it can mine even bigger profits by expanding into video and delivering more messages to mobile computing devices.

Management also wants to extend Google's advertising clout beyond the Web. The company is currently testing a program to place ads in 50 of the nation's largest newspapers and hopes to begin distributing radio ads by the end of this year.

Those grand ambitions are one of the reasons that Google shares keep climbing. The run-up makes Google's stock look fairly expensive by one widely used barometer known as the price-to-earnings, or p/e, multiple.

Analysts, on average, predict Google will earn $13.70 per share next year, leaving the company's p/e at about 37. By comparison, the p/e of Microsoft Corp. -- the world's most prized technology company with a market value of nearly $300 billion -- is about 21, based on analyst's 2007 earnings projections.

Google's relatively high p/e hasn't fazed several analysts who have already predicted the company's stock price will hit $600 within the next year.

Betting against Google has proven to be foolish so far. In the months leading to Google's IPO, widespread skepticism about the company's growth prospects prompted management to discount its desired price, enriching investors who were able to buy at $85. And just eight months ago, Google shares dropped as low as $331.55 amid fears that the company's earnings growth might be on the verge of a dramatic slowdown.

Anyone waiting for a stock split before investing in Google risks being left on the sidelines. Although most publicly held companies regularly split their stock to create a lower per-share price that appeals to more Main Street investors, the proudly unconventional Page and Brin have repeatedly indicated they have no intention of resorting to that maneuver.

Ex Dividend Date answer, Stock Dividend Question

2006-11-11T17:05:00.000-05:00

When a company decides to pay out in what is called a dividend, it sets a date for the record of when you must be on the company's books as a shareholder to receive the dividend. This date is also used for the company to determine who is sent the company information such as financial reports, sent proxy statements, and other information.

Once the company sets the record date, the stock exchanges or the National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc. fix the ex-dividend date. The ex-dividend date is normally set for stocks two business days before the record date. If you purchase a stock on its ex-dividend date or after, you will not receive the next dividend payment. Instead, the seller gets the dividend. If you purchase before the ex-dividend date, you get the dividend.

Almost Family, Inc. (AFAM)

2006-11-08T10:06:00.000-05:00

Almost Family, Inc. (AFAM)

Almost Family, Inc. and its subsidiaries provide home health nursing services. It operates through two segments Visiting Nurse and Personal Care. The Visiting Nurse segment provides medical services in patients' homes. The Personal Care segment provides personal care services in patients' homes. The company has service locations in Kentucky, Florida, Maryland, Ohio, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Alabama, and Indiana. Almost Family was formerly known as Caretenders HealthCorp and changed its name to Almost Family, Inc. in 2000. The company was incorporated in 1985 and is based in Louisville, Kentucky.

The few things I like about this one is the low P/E, and honestly, it's has the lowest out of all it's direct competitors. Through on top of that it has a Qtrly Rev Growth (yoy) of 13.80% and still going!

The only thing that we can not figure out is that. Someone is behind all this, because for all the numbers and key stats. I mean it's a great story, good solid numbers, but is just stuck. We just can not understand why this one has not taken off yet. Though, we feel that it could somewhere down the road. AFAM might be one to watch!

Stock Market Guarantee

2006-11-03T10:32:00.000-05:00

Stock Market Guarantee

Helium is up.

Feathers were down.

Paper was stationary.

Fluorescent tubing was dimmed in light trading.

Knives were up sharply.

Cows steered into a bull market.

Pencils lost a few points.

Hiking equipment was trailing.

Elevators rose, while escalators continued their slow decline.

Weights were up in heavy trading.

Light switches were off.

Mining equipment hit rock bottom.

Diapers remained unchanged.

Shipping lines stayed at an even keel.

The market for raisins dried up.

Coca-Cola fizzled.

Caterpillar stock inched up a bit.

Sun peaked at midday.

Balloon prices were inflated.

Scott Tissue touched a new bottom.

And batteries exploded in an attempt to recharge the market.

Value of Time - this will help you value life, time, friends, family and etc! What's it really worth to you?

2006-11-01T08:48:00.000-05:00

Value of Time - this will help you value not stocks or money but may it help you think about life, time, friends, family and etc! What's it really worth to you?

Imagine there is a bank that credits your account each morning with $86,400.
It carries over no balance from day to day.
Every evening deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use
during the day.
What would you do? Draw out every cent, of course!
Each of us has such a bank. Its name is TIME.
Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds.
Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed
to invest to good purpose.
It carries over no balance.
It allows no overdraft.
Each day it opens a new account for you.
Each night it burns the remains of the day.
If you fail to use the day's deposits, the loss is yours.
There is no going back. There is no drawing against the "tomorrow".
You must live in the present on today's deposits.
Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness and success!
The clock is running. Make the most of today.
To realize the value of ONE YEAR, ask a student who failed a grade.
To realize the value of ONE MONTH, ask a mother who gave birth to a
pre-mature baby.
To realize the value of ONE WEEK, ask the editor of a weekly newspaper.
To realize the value of ONE DAY, ask a daily wage laborer with kids to feed.
To realize the value of ONE HOUR, ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.
To realize the value of ONE MINUTE, ask a person who missed the train.
To realize the value of ONE SECOND, ask a person who just avoided an accident.
To realize the value of ONE MILLI-SECOND, ask the person who won a
silver medal in the Olympics.
Treasure every moment that you have! And treasure it more because you
shared it with someone special, special enough to spend your time.
And remember that time waits for no one.
Yesterday is history.
Tomorrow a mystery.
Today is a gift.
That's why it's called the present!

How much do I initially have to invest?

2006-10-27T10:38:00.000-04:00

How much do I initially have to invest? How much can I afford to consistently add later?

Einstein described compounding as “The Eighth Wonder of the World” and for good reason. Being able to earn interest on your interest allows investments to increase exponentially faster than with simple interest. A one-time investment of $5000 earning 10% interest compounds to a total of over $54,000 after 25 years. Using simple interest, it would take over 95 years to reach the same amount. Naturally, the larger your initial investment and the more you can afford to add later on, the more you can expect to gain in returns.

Am I carrying any high-interest debt, such as on a credit card?

Before saving for future events, you should consider your present finances. Paying off any high-interest loans function as an “automatic” return. Writing a check to Visa to pay down your debt may not feel as satisfying as starting a nest egg, but by eliminating those 22% interest payments, you have effectively “made” a 22% return. Although you need not completely eliminate your debts, getting such payments into a reasonable area should be a more pressing priority.

This fiscal reckoning is also a good time to examine budgeting and expenditures. Look for unneeded or overpriced purchases, and consider the feasibility of paring them down and saving the extra money. Unused gym memberships, that $5 whipped mocha-hazelnut cappuccino, and extra cable channels all add up. The true cost of these and all other purchases involves understanding the “time value of money”, but for now it should suffice to say that $5 added to the previously mentioned investment account compounding 10% for 25 years turns into $54.17.

What is my risk tolerance? What is my investing style?

This question leads us to selecting individual investments. Consider your investment timetable for when you’ll need the money, recognizing that more conservative selections should be made the shorter the window. Everyone’s risk tolerance is different; while one person may feel comfortable with small-cap biotechs another may need a blue chip to feel equally sound.

Analyzing the risk to reward ratio here is a good first step. The more risk you take on, the more you should expect to get in return if your investment pays off. The inverse is also true: the more stable an investment, the less return one should expect. Government-backed I Bonds pay over 6%, but involve tying up money for years in order to fully benefit from them. While this gives you one target, the average return of the broader market indices is about 11% per year. There are two primary schools of thought about investing: growth and value.

Growth

Growth investing is a higher-risk strategy which focuses on finding smaller companies poised to rapidly grow earnings. Stocks here tend to be micro-caps or small-caps, and the occasional mid-cap (under $10 billion). In their younger lives, many of the well-established companies of today found themselves considered here (Think of Apple Computers (AAPL) or Starbucks (SBUX)). Growth companies can be found in many different sectors, although such companies often have similar traits. A growth company usually has a unique product or service to offer which can fundamentally change how business is done. When found early enough in their growth cycles, these companies have the potential to return enormous profits to investors.

Value

Value plays usually are found in larger companies, although the strategies used to find them can be applied to smaller corporations as well. Looking for value stocks is similar to looking for values in a store: find a good product at a price below what you would normally expect to pay. These bargains are often found in the form of companies which have been unfairly beaten down through overselling. Finding value stocks usually involves using a discounted cash flow model (DCF) to find a company’s intrinsic value. This is the form of investing advocated by Benjamin Graham, and popularized by Warren Buffett.

GARP

GARP, or Growth At Reasonable Price, is a combination of the above forms. As the name implies, the focus is finding growing companies trading at reasonable prices. Quick measures of this include the PEG ratio (Price to Earnings to Growth) and Forward P/E. Although not a specific style, GARP is utilized by many investors because of its flexibility. The average, diversified portfolio will have many GARP-type stocks in it.

Getting Started: Learning the Market and Selecting Stocks

If you were going to spend several thousand dollars on a refrigerator or television, you would thoroughly research the market for those goods to find the product which best suited your needs. Investing is no different. Before buying into a company, you should be well-acquainted enough with it to give a short presentation. Knowing the basics of how a company operates, what it sells, how it makes money, how much money it makes, and what kind of growth the company is expected to experience are all crucial questions that any investor should be able to answer. Developing a better understanding of the stock market is a long, but hopefully rewarding, process.

Immediately investing in stocks with real money, however, is equivalent to taking a test without being introduced to the material. Formerly called “paper trading”, beginning investors would normally spend several months tracking their stock picks without having real money on them. Thanks to technology, you can now find sites that automate (for free) the process of tracking price changes for you on the internet. Simulated investing is a risk-free way of beginning to understand market fluctuations and the forces driving them.

Examining these trends will payoff in the future, as an increased understanding of the stock market can only help you on your path to building wealth. Once you become comfortable picking your own stocks, you can still continue to “paper trade” online, as it offers the opportunity to explore and experiment with other investing styles. Gordon Gekko, the famed villain in Wall Street played by Michael Douglas, said “Information is the most valuable commodity I know of”. Ignoring for a moment that the movie ended with indictments for insider trading, the statement is true: you will not regret being an informed and intelligent investor. The market is constantly changing, but by learning the ropes of investing you too can pull off a “One Up on Wall Street”.

10 things the new kid on wall street needs to know

2006-10-24T22:32:00.000-04:00

10 so you want to play the stocks kid! Well, gather around and let us share 10 things that we have learned to stick this game out for the long haul.

Being a new kid on the block of investing is a lot like being a small fish in a big pond. The new adventure of a big pond can be scary, adventure, and fun. Some keys for the new kid on wall street would be:

1) Learn to make your own decisions.

Everyone will give you advice. Most of it is worthless. You need to make your own investment decisions. It’s your money, and believe me, no one cares if you lose it. In fact, many are rooting for you to, because they want to make money off you.

2) Never blindly trust information.

You need to independently confirm every thing you hear about a stock or a company. Through good solid research yourself. People will lie, because they stand to make a ton of money from stock sales. They’ll gladly mis-represent information, so insist on looking at the real thing, real facts, and real research.

3) Do the work and understand what you’re buying.

Stock investing a fairly complex topic. It could take you many months or even years to master the basics. Mastering the basics is what you need to be concerned with. If you really thing there’s a fast buck coming your way, you need to wise up. One key that we always want to state is always investing thinking long term. Not to many people win short term though it can be done it's done by the experts!

4) Develop a trading style or system.

Don't just make up a system, but research systems, so what others do and continue to do. But, then make some small changes and make your own unique system. Don’t always base all your ideas from other famous people’s systems. In every system has it's strengths and weakness. There is no peferct system to get rich fast. A key is to come up with your own personalized investing methods and systems that work for you, your budget, your personality.

5) Ignore “HOT STOCK TIPS”.

Most hot stock tips are SCAMS!! If they were as hot as Shakira, then they would be implemented by the person who has them. The only information about investing that’s released to the masses is outdated.

6) Most people who recommend stocks do so because they have a financial inducement.

Really, just be real with yourself. Don't be so silly to really think that recommendations are just that. In the real investing world rarely are these stock or investing recommendations are not done free. Please not that most of the time the recommendations come after many, the inside guys, etc have already purchased at a lower price then what you would be getting in at.

7) Concentrate investing with a focus.

Don't go read and learn everything you can about every company or stock. You would be better off starting with a trend, or familiar with a few stocks and really research them down to the penny. Again, ALWAYS stick to your guns aka your investing plan, your investing style, and your investing strategy!

8) You need to put big money to see big profits.

Don't go quitting your day job on $5k of capital. It’s not that much money,
BUDDY! You would need a big bankroll to make decent money. This is true, but don't get the wrong idea as well. It's okay to start of with only $5k in starting a good solid investment focus. Balance is a the key, don't go to one extreme of not investing or the other extreme of quitting your day job to become a day trader on $5k of capital.

9) Don’t over due it on the diversifying or put away too much money into too many stocks.

If you do, you can expect to have a hard time getting good solid returns. If you start with a small amount of cash, you need to concentrate in one stock or few stocks to have the best result. Wait until you get some experience, some research, and before you go jumping into the deep end of the stock market.

10) Use stop losses.

Don’t ever lose more than we suggest 8% others might say 10% on any trade. If you use a stop-loss, you can guarantee that your downside is never less than 8% to 10%. This could save you in the event of a free fall. Also, a major key in this to, is to be discipline enough to keep putting in those stop losses even when the stock goes up. So say if your stock has gone up 15% well put a stop loss of a new 8% based on the 15% gain! This is discipline, but that's what it take in investing and in life!

Headwaters (HW)

2006-10-20T11:36:00.000-04:00

Adding value to energy… and possibly your portfolio.
By eInvesting.com

Value investing involves finding a discrepancy between the price of a security and the value of the underlying company. Some people criticize value investing as boring or too prone to overlooking growth opportunities. But what happens if a solid, cash producing business was integrated with a research group intent on finding synergies to generate additional earnings from current operations, and also on finding important new breakthroughs to fuel growth further down in the company’s life?

That company would be Headwaters (ticker: HW), which has three distinct operating divisions - construction materials, coal, and alternative energy. Before I get into valuation, here is an overview of Headwaters’ various segments.

The materials unit currently makes up a majority of earnings and revenues, and involvement in that industry was management's decision to diversify the more risky and cyclical energy operations which offer most of the growth potential. While revenues have undoubtedly been raised by the housing construction boom, only about one-third of Headwaters sales in the area are for new housing construction, so any decrease in revenues and earnings because of fewer housing starts should be minimal. Wisely, there are already some synergies within the company because Headwaters converts used coal into concrete additives and synthetic stone. The use of fly ash-based concrete reduces atmospheric pollution, and as such is endorsed by the federal government and all fifty states for government contracts. Fly ash is also finding its way into mortars and stuccos, which Headwaters sells. Over the last few years, Headwaters has been making capital expenditures to expand its distribution network and establish itself in the field of building supplies. The conservative scenario is for Headwaters to keep capital expenditures in-line with revenues and earnings, so no marginal decrease in free cash flow rates should occur from the Materials division. Look for solid earnings and consistent growth.

The coal division is involved in coal combustion and by-product utilization (see above). Headwaters makes using coal inherently more efficient, and then also finds ways to add value to the byproducts after it has been used to produce energy. Coal remains a cheap, easy way to generate power and with the volatile and increasingly expensive, coal will become even more important in generating energy, both in America and around the globe. There are over 150 proposed coal-fired plants in the U.S. (not to mention hundreds more in other parts of the world), and environmental groups, while usually unable to stop construction, can at least get laws applied to make the coal “cleaner”. Headwaters is perfectly positioned for such a trend, offering both emissions control should coal be burned and is developing coal-to-liquids technology to allow for the creation of synthetic crude oil or natural gas from coal.

Considering that approximately 95% of America’s energy production capacity comes from coal, an amount significantly greater than can be found in the oil reserves of the Middle East, the uses for coal, and coal-to-liquids technology, seem abundant.

The final and most dynamic division is the Technology and Innovation unit, which does research in the alternative energy and heavy-oil areas. For everything you hear about the Canadian oil sands, regular refiners have enough problems handling and grade worse than light, sweet crude. As the remaining supplies of light, sweet crude are extracted, eventually more inferior grades will need to be refined… all the way to tar sands, which is proving the most difficult to handle. Headwaters’ (HC)3 Hydrocracking technology allows for heavy oil to be upgraded to more easily refined grades. Additionally, Hydrocracking can be used on low quality distillates remaining after the initial refining to turn them into higher-value petroleum products. A quick value-added calculation shows that it could easily be a multi-billion dollar addition to the economy, and if Headwaters' maintains its standard operating margin of 11% on it (not to say that it couldn't be higher, but I'm being conservative) it could double earnings just from capturing the upgrading market. If HC3 gained wider use as light oil blends decline and refiners increasingly switch to heavy oil, that could add even more to the bottom line. The high-side estimate for "upgrading" profits is about $600 million. Such a number does not include any profits to be made from applying Hydrocracking technology to the Canadian Tar Sands, as for now that is still too speculative to count on as a potential future revenue.

Headwaters is also involved in nanotechnology and fuel cell research, with numerous potential applications. Their proprietary NxCat nanotechnology is claimed to be the most efficient nanoagent created, outperforming today’s standard catalysts. More uses are being tested involving hydrogen peroxide production, LED displays, and carbon nanotubes. These potential breakthrough, while difficult to value directly, should be treated like having a free call option on an exciting and potentially lucrative future investment.

Current financial status and valuation: Headwaters has had a rough several months, with the rise in oil prices leading to a phasing out of tax credits benefiting some of Headwaters synthetic fuel catalysts. Headwaters has gone from $40 to near $20 back to $25 in the last few months as analysts have cut short term earnings estimates. Having become interested in this stock the first time it traded down through $25, I will admit to becoming bullish too soon and trying to “catch the falling knife”. The stock has begun to swing back up on some positive news, and buying now will mean that, although you missed the first 20% of the move, there could still be plenty of profit ahead.

For a company capitalized at just over $1 billion to have a trailing twelve month free cash flow of $150 million is amazing. HW does have about $500 million in debt, but I'm not too concerned about that because of the large cash flows which can be used to pay that down. They have cut total outstanding debt by 30% since the end of 2004, and the SEC filings say that Headwaters is prohibited from paying a dividend until it has no outstanding long-term liabilities. As long as Headwaters continues to pull in so much cash, their debt position should be no problem. Taking into all the above factors, if the company can eke out a moderate growth in the high single digit range over the next few years, a conservative exit multiple off that free cash flow makes HW undervalued by 35% - or about $35 per share. When you think of the huge potential gains down the road from the many growth areas the company has, its easy to see how this could be a $40 or even $50 stock sometime in the next year or two.

eInvesting.com is a free stock market simulator and forum. The author has no financial position in any stocks mentioned.

Escala Group Inc. (ESCL)

2006-10-19T14:52:00.000-04:00

Escala Group Inc. (ESCL)

ABOUT ESCALA GROUP
Escala Group is a global federation of leading companies in the collectibles market with operations in North America, Europe and Asia as well as on the Internet. The company operates through a number of subsidiaries that specialize in various sectors of the collectibles markets, and is comprised of three business areas: auctions, merchant/dealer operations and trading.

Escala Group's North American operations include Greg Manning Auctions division, Ivy & Manning Philatelic Auctions, Greg Manning Galleries, Greg Martin Auctions, Spectrum Numismatics, Teletrade, Nutmeg Stamp Sales, Superior Sports Auctions, Bowers and Merena Auctions, and Kingswood Coin Auctions, and H.R. Harmer. In Europe, the leading auction houses affiliated with the network are Auctentia Subastas (Afinsa Auctions) of Madrid, Spain, Corinphila Auktionen of Zurich, Switzerland, and the Koehler group of auction companies of Berlin and Wiesbaden, Germany. In Asia, Escala's auctions operations are conducted through John Bull Stamp Auctions, Ltd, the oldest philatelic auction house in Hong Kong.

The trading activities of Escala Group are conducted through A-Mark Precious Metals, one of the largest private sellers of bullion coins and bullion gold, silver and platinum to the wholesale marketplace.

Angeion Corp. (ANGN)

2006-10-17T15:43:00.000-04:00

Angeion looks to be a buy for us here at 'Stocks Online'

These charts look good to me ANGN charts, but what do I know!

Also, it has some really good chart on stock charts check it out here!

One good thing that I really enjoyed and stuck out was the earning went from a loss of $(1.86)/share in 2001 down to a loss of $(.25)/share in 2005. The Angeion (ANGN) has turned around a profit with $.41/share reported. The Angeion (ANGN) has kept its 4 million shares outstanding stable from 2001 to present reports.

One thing that is a must for a lot of fundamentals is the free cash flow! Which with ANGN has been negative at $(1) million in 2003-2005, turned positive with $2 million reported as of recently. So that's a pretty impressive turnout that is turning a lot of head including ours here at stocks online! Also, with a $2.5 million in cash and $11.9 million in other current assets.

Seems to be an interesting look or at least one to be checking out and keeping an eye on it. Espcially after Angeion (ANGN) shares soared 80% on Monday after the tiny medical diagnostic systems maker swung to a fiscal third-quarter profit.

Technical vs. Fundamental Analysis

2006-10-11T11:32:00.000-04:00

Technical vs. Fundamental Analysis
By Thomas Stone of statisticaltrading.com

The debate rages on. Which is better, technical analysis or fundamental analysis?

The question seems simple but it is deceptive. Underneath the question is an unspoken assumption about time horizons. Is the questioner an investor or a trader?

An investor is becoming part of something. The investor makes his choices based on a belief in the future. He desires to help make something successful. If he believes that apples will be in great demand next year he may invest in an orchard to grow apples for sale next year. During the year, while his apples are growing, he may ignore the day-to-day price changes of apples because his focus is on next year.

The trader doesn’t care to be part of anything other than the enterprise of making money. If he thinks orchards will increase in price next week, he’ll buy an orchard. He doesn’t care about orchards or apples. He’d buy a worm farm today if he thought he could turn a dime on it next week. He is very concerned about day-to-day price fluctuations since it is the past behavior of prices that make him expect the price to go up next week.

If the belief in the future value of apples is shaken then some of the orchard investors may decide that running an orchard isn’t the best choice. They abandon the business. Other investors see the cost of orchards dropping and, at some price point, believe that the now lower cost of orchards justifies the apple business given the reduced future price of apples. They start buying orchards.

This doesn’t happen all at once. Not everyone agrees with the amount that the price of apples will drop by. Because of this, different people see different price points as being good times to get back into the apple business.

The investor uses fundamental analysis to make his decisions, but what is the trader doing?

The trader is watching the patterns in the price of orchards and how frequently orchards are changing ownership as the prices go up or down. Eventually the pattern looks like a pattern that he has seen many times before and it usually occurs when prices have finished dropping and they are about to start escalating. Based on this, he decides to buy an orchard. He will hold that orchard until he thinks that he sees a pattern that suggests that the price of orchards will stop going up. He then sells the orchard. He has used technical analysis.

The trader’s technical analysis would be worthless without investors doing their fundamental analysis. Without the investors, there would be no patterns to watch for. It is the investors making their decisions based on fundamental analysis that creates the pricing patterns that the technical trader watches. The pricing pattern that indicates a bottoming in prices occurs when the price falls far enough to start attracting a large number of investors.

In the end, neither is better. Both technical and fundamental analysis help to create an efficient marketplace that can deliver goods to the consumer.

I refer to users of technical analysis as traders and users of fundamental analysis as investors. Their time horizons usually differ. Traders look to get in and out of a trade in hours, days, weeks, and sometimes months. Investors usually get in for months to years.

If you have a strong belief that something is going to happen and you are in the minority then you have an excellent opportunity to make a lot of money by investing in companies that stand to profit from that eventuality. Those profits won’t materialize until you are no longer in the minority. As more and more people start to share your belief, the prices of those companies will rise and you can profit handsomely. While you are waiting for others to start sharing your beliefs, the prices of those companies may go up and down. As long as your belief isn’t swayed you may bear those price swings secure in the knowledge of what is to come. You are an investor. On the other hand, if you’re wrong…

An example may be a belief that there will be water shortages resulting from global warming. Believing this, you may decide to invest part of your money in companies that build desalinization plants. You believe that, over the next 10-15 years, these companies’ products will see soaring demand. Secure in the belief that this will occur, you will not be terribly concerned if the price of one of those companies drops 5 percent next month. You believe that it will recover and then some. You are basing your decision on fundamental analysis.

The above is fundamental analysis on a macro economic scale. Bringing fundamental analysis to bear on a company-by-company basis is much more difficult. Numerous data points need to be entered, many of which are not available as hard data but rely on assumptions made by the person performing the fundamental analysis. One type of fundamental analysis called Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) is currently very popular. It involves formulas that take operating profit, depreciation, amortization, goodwill, capital expenditures, cash taxes, changes in working capital, and weighted average cost of capital, to arrive at a valuation for a company (see http://www.investopedia.com/articles/03/011403.asp for more detail).

Just collecting the data needed to perform the analysis for a single company can be a daunting task. Performing this kind of analysis on a large number of companies on a regular basis quickly becomes a full time job.

The trader on the other hand can use computers to scan for likely candidates for the pricing patterns that he uses. Within minutes a computer can download data on thousands of stocks and have the computer bring up relatively short lists of stocks that are potential candidates for trades.
A trader may also use technical analysis on the market as a whole to move money back and forth between an index fund and a money market fund. One simple way to do this is by using the market breadth.

Market breadth is simply a measure of the difference between the number of advancing issues and the number of declining issues on an exchange such as the NYSE. If 1200 stocks go up in price and 500 go down in price then the breadth is +700. We can calculate this number every day and then look for trends by calculating moving averages of these numbers. A good way to get long term directional movements is to analysis how two different moving averages changes relative to each other. The name for that practice is called Moving Average Convergence Divergence or MACD. If we apply MACD to the breadth using a 19-day and a 39-day moving average then we get a well-known indicator called the McClellan Summation Index (MSI).

Figure 1: MSI courtesy of StockCharts.com

If we look at the SP-500 for the same time frame

Figure 2: SP-500 courtesy of Stockcharts.com

If you had bought and sold an index fund based on the MSI peaks and valleys then you would have made the following trades (numbers and dates approximated)

Purchase date Cost Sales Date Price Profit/(Loss)
Late April ‘05 $1140 Late July ‘05 $1240 8.5%
Late Oct ‘05 $1180 Late Jan ‘06 $1280 8.5%
Late June ‘06 $1240 Late Sept ‘06 $1335 7.5%

You would have been in the market for 9 out of the last 17 months. While in the market you would have realized a 24.5% return plus the money market interest earned during the other 8 months, lets say 2.5%. That works out to a 19% annualized return (27*(12/17)).

How do you know when the MSI is at a peak or a valley? I use the MACD of the MSI with the averages being 30-day and 50-day. This smoothes out the action of the MSI and clearly shows the overall direction that it is moving in.

Figure 3: MACD of MSI courtesy of Stockcharts.com

The black line on the graph is a 9-day moving average of the red line. The red line is the MACD. The histogram shows the difference between the red and black line. The buy signal is when the MSI falls below –300 and the black line crosses up over the red line as it did in late Apr ’05, early Nov ’05, and late June ’06. The sell signal is when the MSI rises above +500 and the black line falls under the red line as it did in late July ’05, early Feb ’06, and late Sept ’06.

This indicator is not perfect at picking tops and bottoms. It is good at warning when the breadth of the market is no longer supportive of the direction of the market. The market usually changes direction shortly after that occurs. In the spring of ’06, this indicator was falling while the market indexes were advancing for an unusually long time. This meant that the number of stocks participating in the market move was dropping off. Fewer and fewer stocks were trading above their 40-day moving averages each week even as the SP-500 moved upward.

There are numerous technical indicators in use and there are many good books that discuss these indicators in depth. One such book is “New Trading Systems and Methods” by Perry J Kaufman. There are also computer programs that can be purchased that have many of these indictors built in such as TC2005 from Worden Bros (www.worden.com). There are also websites that have many of these indicators built in and some on-line brokers have charting packages containing some of the indicators.

The extreme in technical analysis is called Mechanical Trading. In mechanical trading a computer has extensively tested a set of indicators over numerous sets of historical data to arrive at an “ideal” set of indicators which the computer uses to issue buy and sell recommendations completely without any human intervention. My website, www.statisticaltrading.com, allows people to subscribe to computer generated buy and sell recommendations. Our computers have honed sets of technical indicators that have over 83% success rates with average holding times of 5-6 weeks. All recommendations come in the evening for execution at the next morning’s open; there is no day trading support on the site. We also offer a market timing service and a dividend investing service.

Getting Started: Learning the Market and Selecting Stocks

2006-10-09T11:47:00.000-04:00

Getting Started: Learning the Market and Selecting Stocks

If you were going to spend several thousand dollars on a refrigerator or television, you would thoroughly research the market for those goods to find the product which best suited your needs. Investing is no different. Before buying into a company, you should be well-acquainted enough with it to give a short presentation. Knowing the basics of how a company operates, what it sells, how it makes money, how much money it makes, and what kind of growth the company is expected to experience are all crucial questions that any investor should be able to answer. Developing a better understanding of the stock market is a long, but hopefully rewarding, process. Immediately investing in stocks with real money, however, is equivalent to taking a test without being introduced to the material. Formerly called “paper trading”, beginning investors would normally spend several months tracking their stock picks without having real money on them. Thanks to technology, you can now find sites that automate (for free) the process of tracking price changes for you on the internet. Simulated investing is a risk-free way of beginning to understand market fluctuations and the forces driving them. Examining these trends will payoff in the future, as an increased understanding of the stock market can only help you on your path to building wealth. Once you become comfortable picking your own stocks, you can still continue to “paper trade” online, as it offers the opportunity to explore and experiment with other investing styles. Gordon Gekko, the famed villain in Wall Street played by Michael Douglas, said “Information is the most valuable commodity I know of”. Ignoring for a moment that the movie ended with indictments for insider trading, the statement is true: you will not regret being an informed and intelligent investor. The market is constantly changing, but by learning the ropes of investing you too can pull off a “One Up on Wall Street”.

Especialy thanks from einvesting.com Don't start investing alone. Check out einvesting.com today!

GARP

2006-10-05T14:37:00.000-04:00

GARP

GARP, or Growth At Reasonable Price. As the name implies, the focus is finding growing companies trading at reasonable prices. Quick measures of this include the PEG ratio (Price to Earnings to Growth) and Forward P/E. Although not a specific style, GARP is utilized by many investors because of its flexibility. The average, diversified portfolio will have many GARP-type stocks in it.

What is my risk tolerance and investing style

2006-10-04T16:25:00.000-04:00

What is my risk tolerance? What is my investing style?

This question leads us to selecting individual investments. Consider your investment timetable for when you’ll need the money, recognizing that more conservative selections should be made the shorter the window. Everyone’s risk tolerance is different; while one person may feel comfortable with small-cap biotechs another may need a blue chip to feel equally sound.

Analyzing the risk to reward ratio here is a good first step. The more risk you take on, the more you should expect to get in return if your investment pays off. The inverse is also true: the more stable an investment, the less return one should expect. Government-backed I Bonds pay over 6%, but involve tying up money for years in order to fully benefit from them. While this gives you one target, the average return of the broader market indices is about 11% per year. There are two primary schools of thought about investing: growth and value.

Growth

Growth investing is a higher-risk strategy which focuses on finding smaller companies poised to rapidly grow earnings. Stocks here tend to be micro-caps or small-caps, and the occasional mid-cap (under $10 billion). In their younger lives, many of the well-established companies of today found themselves considered here (Think of Apple Computers (AAPL) or Starbucks (SBUX)). Growth companies can be found in many different sectors, although such companies often have similar traits. A growth company usually has a unique product or service to offer which can fundamentally change how business is done. When found early enough in their growth cycles, these companies have the potential to return enormous profits to investors.

Value

Value plays usually are found in larger companies, although the strategies used to find them can be applied to smaller corporations as well. Looking for value stocks is similar to looking for values in a store: find a good product at a price below what you would normally expect to pay. These bargains are often found in the form of companies which have been unfairly beaten down through overselling. Finding value stocks usually involves using a discounted cash flow model (DCF) to find a company’s intrinsic value. This is the form of investing advocated by Benjamin Graham, and popularized by Warren Buffett.

Questions to ask before investing

2006-10-04T14:31:00.000-04:00

Questions to ask before investing

How much do I initially have to invest? How much can I afford to consistently add later?

Einstein described compounding as “The Eighth Wonder of the World” and for good reason. Being able to earn interest on your interest allows investments to increase exponentially faster than with simple interest. A one-time investment of $5000 earning 10% interest compounds to a total of over $54,000 after 25 years. Using simple interest, it would take over 95 years to reach the same amount. Naturally, the larger your initial investment and the more you can afford to add later on, the more you can expect to gain in returns.

Am I carrying any high-interest debt, such as on a credit card?

Before saving for future events, you should consider your present finances. Paying off any high-interest loans function as an “automatic” return. Writing a check to Visa to pay down your debt may not feel as satisfying as starting a nest egg, but by eliminating those 22% interest payments, you have effectively “made” a 22% return. Although you need not completely eliminate your debts, getting such payments into a reasonable area should be a more pressing priority.

This fiscal reckoning is also a good time to examine budgeting and expenditures. Look for unneeded or overpriced purchases, and consider the feasibility of paring them down and saving the extra money. Unused gym memberships, that $5 whipped mocha-hazelnut cappuccino, and extra cable channels all add up. The true cost of these and all other purchases involves understanding the “time value of money”, but for now it should suffice to say that $5 added to the previously mentioned investment account compounding 10% for 25 years turns into $54.17.

Technical vs. Fundamental Analysis

2006-10-04T12:10:00.000-04:00

Before entering the world of investing

2006-10-02T09:49:00.000-04:00

Before entering the world of investing, it is important to honestly analyze your present situation. Doing so will allow you to effectively manage your own money in a way which maximizes returns while limiting unwanted risk. Questions to consider include:

What is my investment goal? How much time do I have to attain this goal?

Methods of saving for a down payment on a house differ greatly from saving for retirement. The reason for this lies in the factoring of time. Over short periods of
a few years, individual companies and the stock market as a whole can experience dramatic fluctuations which in no way represent longer-term trends. Because of this possibility, a smaller percentage of your portfolio should be allocated into stocks as the time for cashing in your investments draws near. Conversely, the longer the time period you have to invest, the more aggressive your portfolio should seek higher returns.

Jim Cramer Quotes, Mad Money quotes, business quotes

2006-09-29T22:25:00.000-04:00

Jim Cramer Quotes, Mad Money quotes, business quotes

The speculative public is indulged in stocks that I have no confidence in. There's a stock that I am sure of right now, Iomega, that is the third-tier player in a very cyclical market, storage for personal computers.

The third-tier players, Iomega, IMP, historically in this era when PC sales are threatened if there's a lot of competition in storage, the third-tier players usually cease to exist in six to eight months.

The way the credit cards were made in the '80s to be a people's form of capitalism and be able to make it so that you could get a loan that you would have been denied previous, now that's the way stocks are.

Their managements are not as shrewd and Hewlett-Packard. They're not as good as a management of Intel. They haven't seen downturns like the management of Merck.

There are companies out there in our country who historically have not been able to beat the Germans and the Japanese, who now beat them routinely.

There are tons of people who are late to trends by nature and adopt a trend after it's no longer in fashion. They exist in mutual funds. They exist in clothes. They exist in cars. They exist in lifestyles.

There were speculators saying that the foreign stocks had the stock going down. They were all wrong. Those classes of assets were dangerous at the time and they became great bargains.

There's accountability in the mutual fund industry. And they've been tremendous engines of wealth for people and they're going to continue to be so.

There've been fortunes made in Merck. There have been fortunes made in Pfizer. There will be fortunes again made in Merck and Pfizer.

These will be fabulous investments and will make millions of more people rich.

They had too many country clubs, too many airplanes, whatever. And raiders came in and rationalized those and then the raiders got too greedy and the raiders blew off. Good riddance.

This issue has died down right now because the way the corporate killers were on the cover of Newsweek and everybody's been hushed about the lay-offs.

Those were the people who sold were people who had chased previously good performance in '93. Now we have seen those funds suffer massive redemptions, at times being down as much as 40-50 percent.

We are all wrong so often that it amazes me that we can have any conviction at all over the direction of things to come. But we must.

We typically hear numbers that there are 34 million households that are in stocks in some form. Well, I say that what's occurred is if you have a job in this country, you're in stocks.

Well, he's just the same guy who in other aspects of his life would be very late to a trend.

What I'm saying is that there are bargains right now, there are stocks right now that if you're shrewd enough, you will be able to buy them at the opening today and I you'll make money in a year from now.

When I speak of the term 'the stock market', I'm invariably speaking of good American companies that tended to be not that sharp in the '70s, got sharp in the '80s, and are now unbelievably good in the '90s.

You have a class of investors and you have a class of speculators. The speculators historically haven't been big enough to cause the investors to doubt the long-term vision of stock.

Jim Cramer Quotes, Mad Money quotes, business quotes

ETF trading like the pros

2006-08-21T10:42:00.000-04:00

Sometime when investing, and especially with something such as an ETF fund which is very broad, low risk, and pretty safe investment. Sometimes thinking outside the box is a pro thing to do. Thinking of different markets or sects that you feel have strengths. Don't always fall for investing into a ETF with what seems hot right now such as the REIT's or energy. Think outside the box a little and look down the road and what will be hot from 3 to 6 months from now? Okay no one can really predict this, but you can be pretty safe with an EFT so stretch it a little bit!

Look into actual values and what is undervalued in today's market could be a steal down the road or long term. This would be a great steal to get into a EFT. This is what the pros do, they don't just wait there time at looking or analysting and identifying the true stock value and if it's a fair enough stock value to have to date.

We can not say enough about fundamental and stock analysts research and evaluation could save you not only a lot of money, but probably a lot of time in the long run. Look and research what the ETF's are trading, the history holds, and always check the growth rate.

Remember there are several companies out there for the ETF index fund. So that means competition, but competition can be healthy. So what is our point...our point is sometimes going with the other guy that is or could be offer the same ETF for a lower price then why not go for it! Sometimes the big guys can hurt you in the long run...becuase of them want to make money too. But, sometimes those big guys make money off you more then you could believe!

Always remember as well, that investing is long term. If your looking for a quick buck first you will not be getting them out of any ETF's. So research, check into a lot of different things, and pick the one that you think can make a good long term return and start trading smart like a pro!

Global Warming and why we need more solar power and other alternative-energy stocks

2006-07-06T11:03:00.000-04:00

Global Warming

Do you believe or buy into this one? Well, while you will honestly not be seeing and major effects immediately. Though we believe that this is happening and that it could have some long term effects with will hit home in time. Which time will only tell us.

Nature can be gruel. With global warming the world's glaciers are melting faster than ever before. This is increasing the water supply for the 40% of the worlds population that rely on glacial melt for their water supply. Then, the glaciers will be gone and with them, the water supply for over 2 billion people. But we won't have the energy required to build and run desalination (remove the excess salt and other minerals from water in order to obtain fresh water) plants to deliver potable water to that many people, because the world will not be able to increase energy production at will, it will have lacked that ability for many years.

Interested in some facts here check these interesting articles, and tell us what you think!

2005 Was The Warmest Year In A Century

Global Warming Surpassed Natural Cycles In Fueling 2005 Hurricane Season, NCAR Scientists Conclude

We had to throw this one in as well...The good, bad and ugly of world growth

This is why we need more solar power and other alternative-energy stocks seem to us to be more appealing and have a bright future just like Jim Cramer! Booyah! So check out one of past articles about solar power and other alternative-energy stocks.

Sun Kissed
Solar-power and other alternative-energy stocks suddenly appear to have a bright future. Even W. is warming up to them.

By James J. Cramer

Cramer, Jim Cramer, Cramer Mad Money!

2006-07-06T09:43:00.000-04:00

Here is a new one for you and myself, but it's going on. We are calling it the Cramer report and that's right it's all about the Cramer report. Cramer report is very entertaining and he is drawing a great fan base or even close to a bandwagon that continue to turn into his Cramer TV Mad Money! Cramer with all his rants about business and investing during Mad Money, it's like ESPN hits the stock market so BOOYAH!

Though, Cramer, Mad Money, the street, Cramer's Blog all that is honestly is great. Cramer is a very smart man, and the fact of the matter is...Cramer is a genius! There is one thing that what we would like to talk about today. This would be what we are calling the cramer bandwagons. These are the average joe trader sitting on the couch yelling booyah right along with Cramer throughout the whole show. Some of these same people are traders that could take every little thing that Cramer says rather it's entertaining or serious they are taking it all in as stock information to the very last booyah Cramer says! But, the fact of the matter is they are not stopping there. They will then run to there computer and get on yahoo stock discussion boards, stock forums, and etc and will continue to repeat everything that Cramer stated rather it was a joke or not.

So, your probably asking yourself so what...everyone had there opinion which is fine and great and dandy! Even Cramer has his strong and funny opinions as well. Though, the fact of the matter is people on this Cramer bandwagon are taking his word and turning into gold or even better investing. Investing is not rocket science we know this, but it's not always that easy as well.

Though, here is a new Cramer bandwagon theory that seems to be sort of trend of and in of it's self. The Cramer bandwagon strategy is go buy the stock that Cramer picks, and it should be going up. Why, because Cramer has these bandwagon fans that will take everything that he has to say and will start discussing them and even buying into his stock suggestions!

Well, to conclude, keep tuning into Mad Money, reading Cramer's log, the cramer report, and etc. We know for sure we will. It's a great resource for new stock ideas, and his introductions to be loaded with great information. Though, remember to do your own homework, listen with one ear while read and research with two eyes, and then you will be the true booyah stock winner! And Remember...Picks that stick. Stocks that rock. Equities sans inequities. Money without the madness. Booyah!

Have you ever wondered why some say buy and other say sell?

2006-07-05T10:59:00.000-04:00

Have you ever wondered why some say buy and other say sell? Seriously why is it that some analysts recommend some stocks but not others? Let us do some research and work for you to help completely explaing this very great investing question. The simple, quick, and easy answer is intrinsic value of a company. Now, I know what your thinking what in the world is this intrinsic value of a company. Well let us break it down to an average trader joe. Though using the intrinsic value, analysts are able to predict what the target price for a stock should be. And your asking well who cares about the target price of a stock or what it should be. Well, if your investing money into a stock you should care!

The target price for a stock is found by taking the market cap (the price of the stock multiplied by the number of outstanding shares) and the intrinsic value and putting them into the following formula: -((market cap-intrinsic value)/intrinsic) x 100. This formula gives the percentage of whether the company is overvalued or undervalued. This percentage is then taken and multiplied by the current stock price to get the target price. For example, if a company is trading at $50 a share, and is undervalued by 15% to find the target price, you would use the following formula: 50 x 1.15=57.5 or Current Stock Price times percent difference + current stock price= target price.

EMC Corporation

2006-06-27T11:04:00.000-04:00

Why EMC is looking good though it has hit a 52-week low. EMC Corporation and its subsidiaries engage in the development and delivery of information infrastructures worldwide. It operates in four segments: EMC Information Storage Products, EMC Multiplatform Software, EMC Services, and VMware.

Looking at the trend charts, trends of the market, and trends of the EMC's industry. Along with other factors such as a very strong position in the disk storage industry. Coming with up with statistics such as EMC holding 21.8% of external disk storage systems. Plus, the diversified fact of EMC makes it pretty appealing. With EMC corp. being in development and delivery in information worldwide.

The things that are really sticking out to us, are the 0. We know usually that 0 is not a good number but in this case it is. This 0 is the long term debt that EMC has. Put that long term debt of 0 on top of generating $1.3 billion in annual free cash flow. Now do you see why we are liking this one. So this is one of the reasons why we think that EMC can be strong in the upcoming months.

Though, we will be completely honest with you do we feel that EMC is at it's complete low. It's hard to say, but we feel that it will still be dropping some. But, be looking for this EMC to be on the raise once the whole market settles and EMC might just be leading the way.

Are you ready to be called an active investor?

2006-06-27T09:53:00.000-04:00

So here are some common signs that you aren't ready to be an active investor:

...you can't look at the basic fundamentals such as key statistics, balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow statements.

...you think that risk in the stock market can be measured by price volatility.

...you don't understand the difference between a company's intrinsic value and its stock price.

*please note this is all subjective information, and many investors will define different values of different investing ideas. This can result in many different methodologies, but the facts is better know your stuff and do your own research!

ETF and growing in focus

2006-06-26T10:45:00.000-04:00

Just Yesterday, Rydex Investments will unveil a set of six currency ETFs, called CurrencyShares: Australian Dollar Trust (FXA), British Pound Sterling Trust (FXB), Canadian Dollar Trust (FXC), Mexican Peso Trust (FXM), Swedish Krona Trust (FXS), and Swiss Franc Trust (FXF).

Other recent ETF that have recently just opened have been. Lately, ETFs are getting more complicated. Once known as an easy, low-cost way to achieve broad diversification, ETFs are becoming increasingly focused, allowing institutional investors and other experts to gain exposure to ever-narrower sectors (see BusinessWeek.com, 05/05/06, "ETFs: Sliced, Diced and Razor-Thin"). Fund companies have rolled out 45 new ETFs so far this year, according to Boston-based Financial Research Corp.

Just in the past few weeks more have been added as well, State Street Global Advisors will launch six new ETFs. The new portfolios are: SPDR Metals and Mining (XME), SPDR Retail (XRT), SPDR Pharmaceuticals (XPH), SPDR Oil & Gas Equipment & Services (XES), SPDR Oil & Gas Exploration & Drilling (XOP) and streetTRACKS KBW Regional Banking (KRE). Each will carry an expense ratio of 0.35%. "What we're providing is pure exposure to each one of these industries," says Greg Ehret, senior managing director at State Street.

Segway close to IPO

2006-06-26T07:57:00.000-04:00

Segway sets course for stock market

Although the electric, self-balancing Segway scooter never quite caught on with commuters the way its backers had predicted five years ago, the segway scooter gizmo has found a growing market and very popular niche which include golf courses, law-enforcement agencies (with more than 100 police departments worldwide), and even the government is using them as well.

The segway scooter niche market, and add the highly interest from Europeans struggling with gas prices much higher than in the U.S., and Europeans being more environmentaly friend has brought with them a new fresh life into the Segway.

And Segway Inc. President and Chief Executive James Norrod, hoping to parlay the growth into a payday for the original investors in the scooter, has made grooming the company for an initial public offering in the next few years a top priority. Norrod said he was brought in as CEO last year for just that purpose by Segway's principal investors, Credit Suisse Group and the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, best known for its early investment in Google Inc.

Gauging Segway's prospects in an IPO is difficult, since the company will not reveal its yearly revenue or whether it is profitable. Norrod will only say that "tens of thousands" of Segways have been sold around the world, and that the company's revenue has been growing by at least 50 percent over each of the last few years.

Other factors which is the same old story we are hearing with the whole high fuel prices playing a major role in the potential of big number customers, especially in Europe, and other places where gas can be twice as expensive as it is in the U.S.

The segway scooter international sales were only about 5 percent of the complete segway business about two years ago, the stats are showing that it could be as high was 40 percent by the end of this year. The international segway sales are coming mostly from law-enforcement customers and commuters struggling with high gas prices in Europe. The company also recently set up dealerships in Japan and China.

The segway company is stating that the segway ht (human transporter) gets the equivalent of about 450 miles per gallon, based on the amount of gas it would take to create the electricity needed to run it.

For police and security users, many of whom bought the device with grants from the
Homeland Security Department and other federal agencies, the fuel efficiency is only an added bonus.

The scooters, which travel as fast as 12.5 mph, also allow an officer on patrol to cover a much greater distance than on foot, and go indoors, onto elevators and other places bigger vehicles can't. Blair said the added efficiency allows a force to cut down on the number of patrol officers on each shift and recoup the Segway's cost in as quickly as a month.

In other applications, several bomb squads such as those in Ventura County, Calif., and Little Rock, Ark., are using Segways to transport officers in bombproof and hazardous-material suits that can weigh as much as 100 pounds. The Segway allows them to scoot in and out of a scene quickly, without having to waddle in on foot in the bulky suits. Segway marketing Vice President Klee Kleber said emergency workers responded to the London bombings last year on Segways, as traffic clogged the routes for larger vehicles.

The segway company is also selling its "smart motion" technology — the software and chips that allow a segway to balance on two wheels — to robotic developers at universities and in the military. The technology of the segway will also be used in a robotic toy made by WowWee Ltd., maker of the "Robosapien" toy robot, that is due out later this year.

Other things to be looking for!

2006-06-21T10:52:00.000-04:00

Other things to be looking for is a the accumulation/distribution rating which looks at the companies buying (accumulation) and the companies selling (distribution) of public stock. Also, look for major indexes to post information on the day. Then you search the leaders of the major index, which are shown daily of each industry group. Be on the look out and researching the stocks that are hitting a new high.

Just a thought!

2006-06-21T10:43:00.000-04:00

Here is an idea. It's a work smarter not harder idea. Everyone and thier brother is talking about the market and where this and that is going. Try this one for once, instead of complaining and spending our time talking about where the market is going. Why not spend some time researching, and really doing your homework in stocks that are first staying steady in this type of market, and second some potential that could be future buying stocks when you think the market has hit it's low and ready for the upward swing. It's like preparing yourself for the future WOW...what an idea!

Again, be looking for those stocks that stand steady and strong in such a market as today. Search for some of the stocks that did not loss 50% or more, this might be the steady and strong stocks for the future. Just waiting for the market and smart investors to come on board before it starts taking off again just like the market will.

Be looking for the stocks that have a nice combination of strong growth, great earnings, sales growth would be a must, and top it off with a solid fundamentals and profit margin. I easy way to truly check out the company's strong earnings would be to checking out the company's earning per share rating. This EPS is rated and measured every company from a 1 (lower/worst) to 99 (highest/best).

Debt free can be a life safer

2006-06-19T11:57:00.000-04:00

Debt clouds the line that separates wants, desires, and needs. Needs are necessary purchases such as food, clothing, shelter, medical coverage, transportation, and others. Wants involve choices about quality of goods. Discount shopping versus specialty shopping, lobster versus chicken, or a new car versus a good used car, and so on. Desires are those things that can be purchased only after all other obligations are met and only if there are surplus funds available to purchase them. Debt allows desires to become wants and wants to become needs.

Debt encourages impulse buying and overspending. The chief financial officer of a national credit card company said that consumers spend on the average of 25 to 30 percent more when they charge than if they purchase with a check or cash and that a great majority of those extra purchases are the result of impulse buying. Unrestricted debt assumption and credit cards have allowed people to buy immediately beyond the means to repay, without sacrificing needs and necessities.

Debt stifles resourcefulness. In a society that lives by the premise of “I want, what I want, when I want it,” the need to be resourceful—mending clothing, resoling shoes, and changing oil—in order to save money is no longer relevant. It is more convenient to purchase new or to charge services simply by “putting it on plastic,” and then paying for it later, regardless of interest or finance charges.

Debt eliminates family financial planning. Rather than planning for the future and allowing for a margin of errors, overruns, and changes to dictate future financial development, debt eliminates the necessity for future planning because the course for the financial future of the family will have already been set: pay the debt that has been accumulated.

Debt teaches children that the world’s method of managing money is normal. Debt causes children to have a casual regard for using credit cards, obtaining loans and mortgages, and keeping vows to pay the bills. For this reason, we have children who have graduated from college by borrowing for education expenses and living to the limit of their credit cards. They have never considered paying cash for transportation or anything else and have begun adult life with so much debt that they have to work for years just to pay for the debt accumulated during their college years.

Why debt is so dangerous

2006-06-19T11:56:00.000-04:00

Why debt is so dangerous

* Debt presumes on the future. When people commit themselves to payments over a period of time, they are presuming that there will be no pay reductions, no loss of job, and no unexpected expenses. That is an improbable assumption (see Proverbs 27:1).

* Debt lowers future standards of living. Money that is borrowed today must be repaid over time along with interest, which means that those things purchased with credit will cost more “tomorrow” than they did today. Therefore, the standard of living will have to be adjusted to compensate for the added expense.

* Debt focuses on façade decisions rather than real-life decisions. Debt encourages people to make decisions based on whether they can afford a monthly payment, rather than on whether they can afford the total cost (purchase price, operational expenses, and finance charges) of the item. Debt makes it too easy to say yes to low monthly payments while ignoring the real cost of items.
* Debt leaves people at the mercy of the power of compound interest. If consumers pay the minimum monthly payment on a $1,000 debt at 19.8 percent rate of interest and never charge anything else on that account, it will take eight (8) years to pay back the $1,000 and they will pay $2,023 for the privilege of charging $1,000. In some cases, items charged on nationally accepted bank credit cards can cost upwards to eight times the original purchase price of the item by the time the bill is paid off.

Making ETFs work for you

2006-06-15T07:36:00.000-04:00

Making ETFs work for you by investing in what you want. Take todays market for example, a lot of people are very hesitant an d don't know what to invest in. Well, this is where ETFs can really step into your portfolio, by a little extra protection since they are one diversified, two they are funds not just one individual stock, and thirdly you can really specialize in certain sectors and areas that may be volatile in individual stocks.

Here are some real ways that ETFs can be inserted into your portfolios and making them whatever you want:

Maybe your want something international, maybe try looking into iShares MSCI GERMANY (AMEX:EWG) or iShares TR FTSE INDX (NYSE:FXI)

Say you want income from Dividends, a great looking ETF for this is iShares Down Jones Select Dividend Index (DVY), and Vanguard's REIT VIPER (VNQ).

Maybe you want to protect yourself from inflation, maybe try iShares Goldman Sachs Natural Resources Index (IGE) and iShares Lehman TIPS Bond (TIP).

Along with these roles ETFs can also, play that filler in your portfolio. Let's just say you fell that you have just about everything that you wanted covered in your complete portfolio, but your have a lot of one area, but you just want to cover everything. Well, ETF could be a great play in this factor. So make the EFTs that filler for you to completely diversified to your likes. Even if you like investing in individual stocks, ETFs may be able to play a role in your portfolio. Say if you have a lot of the large cap stocks covered, why not fill that gap with a small cap ETF to fully fill that portfolio. Just one more way of making ETFs work for you!

Make ETFs win for you

2006-06-15T07:19:00.000-04:00

Make ETFs win for your portfolio. Here is the first one we would suggest in making ETF trading work for you and your portfolio. We suggest that you would target a well researched sector of that you know through your research that is going to be a winner and why not diversify with throwing in an ETF of your portfolio.

The good things about an ETF is that your getting what you want through customized but still a good mix of a sector of your choice. Along with this, we fell that ETFs are winners for all. It does not matter if your a still working, newly retired, or just about to retire. ETFs can still work for all of those people. The great things about ETFs still is that they target and play different investing styles. Still not convinced, check it out for your self at iShares website (http://www.ishares.com) this should help you in creating that customized mix we are talking about.

Make ETFs work for you

2006-06-15T07:18:00.000-04:00

One more role ETFs can play is in the tax loss area. ETFs can help you do some fast, quick, easy moves to and a little easier on the taxes. Here is one example say you feel that Ebay is a strong solid stock with great long-term potential. Say your sitting currently on a loss as of right now, but you still really like the stock. So, this is what could do to make it look more attractive on paper. So, say you sell your stock at a loss just for the tax write-off, but in return you still really want the stock of Ebay. So you think or don't want to miss out on anything from Ebay, but remember the rule of the IRS 31 days "wash sale". This is where the role and great way of playing ETFs.

Here is the plan:

You currently own a bio tech at a loss, so you sell the stock for tax purpos only, turn around or even the same day you could purchase a bio ETF with that same stock that you were or had owned, wait 31 days...sell the ETF...buy back the stock.