What I learned

I found this project to be a great way to 'break the ice' in preparing to become a investor. It's light hearted and investigative nature lent itself to plying the wonky world of stocks - where, I found, consumer perception of the viability of a stock, supersedes sound economic tools and information.

On one of my blogs I researched the P/E ratio and was astonished to see again how investor hopes and confidence play a roll. Yahoo's investment portfolio was a great tool for me to dip into the world of trading. The ease of clicking into my different stocks for info, latest news and annual reports allowed me to quickly check in on my stocks, as I followed them through these weeks.

It was nerve- racking to watch the prices rise and fall! It was tempting to get completely sucked in to this world: read blogs, news, business articles and subscribe to motley fool etc. It could have become my life and each new rise or drop would suggest a different response or shift my strategy. I chose to just ride these stocks out, because of the short period. It is hilarious and frustrating to be drawn into the matrix of trying to predict a stocks future, then when info comes up that effects the price, to attempt to not only predict the effect, but the response of others and therefore the resulting best strategy - which will out trick all the other stockies. It can become a web of opposing strategies and one either becomes the one who risks or the one who holds.

I found it interesting that in these weeks, the Western Digital stock plunged, because of the news, that a new technology was to supercede the hard disk technology - yet there was so little information on it - that I couldn't confirm or deny this report - top secret, innovative, cool and cheaper! I could have sold immediatly, yet I chose not to, because in all my experiences with personal and institutional computers, safety is supreme and I feel that even if a new technology will take over, it will need time to convince the consumer, that it is safe. That's fine, yet if every other shlump sells their WDC stock and I'm the only one holding on, the price witll have dropped and it does not matter if WDC make humongous profits - the dividends will not outweigh the losses in stock price.

I wondered if I am a very conservative investor, that likes to hold stocks longterm or if my true investor nature has not really shown itself - I did not really treat it like mad money - but it seems that is the best attitude to have with stocks - otherwise you will be having bi-weekly or bi-daily heart attacks . What is ist about the daily fluctuations anyway? - they are just huge! I imagined there to be a huge selling an buying and swapping session in the morning and then frantic or calm adjustments during the day - there seems to be a pattern here....

I would have liked to have times in class to share ( maybe in small groups) on our findings. After a few weeks I could have used an infusion of new thoughts and some neat stock tips and insights on blogs, etc. (And 50 points ain't enough for all this work!)

Which brings me to the blog. This was a great opportunity to dry-run a blog and I found it to be easier to write 3times a week in this blog than I would have on a blank piece of paper. I highly recommend it! I may be more slapstick and giddy in this format - but it seems to match the expectations of the project.

On blogs, news, reports and famous investor picks

Overall the diversity of information is wide - I like the pages that list how different influential investors or bloggers rate a certain stock: The are literally all over the place and it seems in this economic situation especially changeable.

I appreciated: The Wall Street Journal: when they chose to report on a firm, they would give enough information and back ground to actually assess the situation, simularly, Barrons would give a more in depth coverage.
CNBC was very up to date and on the pulse of the action, with less depth, more short video blips and other concentrated facts, often organized around a theme.
Message boards were even more all over the place - You can get solid and quicker or behind the scenes info - but the ratio of reading and assessing it's real value is out of whack and time consuming -I did not find one, that I hooked into and trusted - the scene is vast!

Then you have these for profit sites that lure you in with promises of great secrets of the super wealthy (which, I'm sure they are willing to part with) - there is a whole industry that preys on the individual investor.

Even my friends and aqantances tips were interesting - they illuminated their thinking:
some wanted me to do research for them, some focused on new companies and each of them had partial information (like: you go try it,and tell me how it went)

News Reports

Since Companies that have stock need to give out regular PR, many of their relaeses are boring and hope to shape the discussion and lift their status in the public eye. Other PR is so short and without much background info, that is is misleading also. The whole machinery is built on hype, so it truly is hard to decipher the actual situation - the reports let you now more about how the other stock holders and buyers will react.

Internet Sales, still at 8% of total sales

M. Brennan, CNBC says that internet sales are benefiting from the same conditions that are hurting sales at brick-and-mortar stores.High gas prices keep consumers away from malls or cut sdoen on visits. He shows that e-mails sent to repeat customers by stores have the cheapest marketing cost ($6.85 is the average cost per order), while the average order value is high ($120.27 )
"Search engine shopping is also among the cheapest ($8.63 average cost per order) while yielding a high return ($109.73 average order value.) These cheap marketing tools are helping retailers maximize profits."

Again CNBC is giving more than just snippets of info, but is combining it with behind the scenes data!

Which lead me to a question: Are Google

Google Inc GOOG 457.45 -11.63 -2.48% NASDAQ

Quote | Chart | News | Profile

and other search engines truly the main beneficiaries of the growth in retail? Is this "retail trade" really more of a "tech play"?

honing in .....

to

April 15th 2008 - Closing

My final results:

I have lost $1,701.19 on an original investment of $19, 158.26, with 841. 84 held in cash.
My final holdings value is $17, 457.07.

careening toward the end

Margaret Brennan, CNBC, on why retail stocks are not down, despite the drop in March sales:

Brean Associates' Eric Beder says it may be the 'end of the beginning' in terms of retail disappointments. Stores may get better in managing down expectations and in cutting back on inventory. They'll also gain an extra shopping day in April and benefit from an easier comparison year over year.
now isn't it interesting that all these intelligent people reading stock reports, income reports, income estimates, P/E ratios etc. can be conned by an extra day in April 08?!
I keep reading up on retail stocks to see if there is one I would consider buying to diversify my portfolio.

stock tales

EMarketer, an online research company,

predicted last December that total ad spending on all social network sites in the US would be about $1.6bn in 2008, compared with $$920m in 2007.

yo, quick, let's get in on that market! Webdesign - design - something....googles stock is still down though...the president id selling off his shares!

The Credit Crisis and the Motorcycle

Mr. Kasriel was quoted here back in September as providing proof that Americans were living well beyond their means -- and that it was bound to come home to roost. As we all know, he was right and it has, as is evidenced by Harley's U.S. retail sales, which have hit the skids, falling 14%... (Wall Street Journal)

lululemon

google cuts 300 jobs, yawn...

everyone is yipping - but google bought this Double-click to harvest its software and disassemble the company - come on, guys... why all this wining over a couple of jobs

are they trying to make bad press out of a normal capitalist everday happening? is there anti- google sentiment?

I think so

Bayern Landes Bank writes down 6.7 billion...

"A large German-owned bank, BayernLB, said Thursday that it would write down 4.3 billion euros, or $6.7 billion, double its previous estimate, as the contagion from the tight credit market continued to spread to state-owned banks in Germany.

The result is likely to increase calls in Germany for a broad consolidation of so-called Landesbanks"
(NYTimes)

the american loan fiasco spreads to Germany - they kicked out their Chief executive officer and Germans are worried that this may pave the way of consolidating the German Banking system - which the regions have successfully resisted. They worry that this would mean extensive lay - offs, which would be true, I say.

It is interesting to me that our crisis could effect a monopolization of Banks in another industrialized country!

welcome new invites to my blog

google

saw a fabulous ad for

Abercrombie and Fitch, the perfect combo of : american, young, smug and indirectly very sexy.

Their brand scares me - it expresses the generation that is arrogant, doesn't speak to anyone out of a certain range of beauty, age and race. And they have been doing great - I've wanted to follow a fashion brand, but am aware that they are a more volotile stock - one day your in, and the next the masses have moved on to the next new in brand and no one can entirely understand why.

Also the fashion industry has high costs and is now dependent on imports

It would be hard for me to buy stocks without believing in their brand, also not having that identification or interest is dangerous, since one would not have a sense of when things were to shift.

stagnant stocks - I think I should sell

nay, face it, christine, you are not selling -

google is almost back to par - now WDC is way down, shoulda sold when I got the bad news - could buy it back later and make money!!

that is what I shoulda done , cause I caught the wave of selling out of fear was just beginning....
I personally do think that in the next 1.5 years hard drives will still make a killing - don't know enough about this new technoligy to tell if can really break through - hard drives are such a humongous market now!

perini, update from the directors

We closed 2007 with an exceptional fourth quarter with revenues of $1.2 billion, up 32% from a year ago and net income of $22.9 million, up 18% from a year ago. For the full year, we reported the highest revenues and net income in our 114-year history.
(they just ooze confidence and power and success - great PR, a bit scary)

Our work at the $1.8 billion Cosmopolitan Resort and Casino in Las Vegas continues unabated. The owner has advised us that they have entered into an agreement of principle with a new equity investor and are currently working on the necessary agreements. All current amounts due to us have been paid, and we have an interim agreement with Deutsche Bank for payments continuing on a monthly basis....
For the full year 2007, we were awarded $3.75 billion in new contracts

(ooops)Our civil segment incurred a lose of $13 million in 2007. This was primarily due to a charge we recorded for a pending civil settlement with the U.S. Attorney’s office in New York concerning the investigation regarding contracting with disadvantaged minority and women owned businesses.

Operating margin for the building segment was 3% in the fourth quarter, up from 2.5% in the fourth quarter of ‘06. Once again, we’ve realized significant profitability improvement in all of our building companies. (yikes -thats about the profit margin of a grocery store)

Looking at the full year, we generated revenues of $4.6 billion, up 52% from last year and at the high end of our guidance range of $4.4 billion to $4.6 billion. Net income was $97.1 million, up 134% from $41.5 million in 2006 and diluted earnings per share were $3.54 compared to $1.54 in 2006, exceeding our guidance of $3.30 to $3.45. (now, explain to me, why their stocks are down?)
Finally, we are affirming our initial guidance for 2008 revenues in the range of $5 billion to $5.4 billion and diluted earnings per share estimated to range from $3.50 to $3.75. Stockholders’ equity increased 51% to $368.3 million from $243.9 million in ‘06.

well, it seems investors are nervous about the loan situation and how it will affect perini's current and future projects. ALso about expendable income dropping, which would affect Las Vegas, where perini has multiple sites.

ITs 6:29PM and my stocks have crashed to the lowest ever

i'm down 3.64% overall - everthing lost except WOLF, which gained a smidgen -

Thursday4.01PM
i'm back up a bit - only down by 2.12% WFC is up $250 (on $2000), and the banks are up!
wolf is back down - I'm so ininspired by that stock,
WDC crashes and is now down by 6.88%, has everone abandoned hard drives?
teredyne still steady
per is also slowly dragging - haven't heard why, problably because they have contracts with companies that need loans

it's 8:58 AM and I am only down $63.13!!! bring out the champagne before the markets open!

• it's 12:37 PM and I am =down by 1.33% Western Digital drops a whopping 5%. Today it announces shipment of it newest 640GB hardrive - now that is something to get yourteath into! - but on monday CNN money announces that fash drives are getting much cheaper and are now replacing expensive hard drives - whoops, I'm on the wrong technological band wagon.
• google still sucks but I made back $150 of my $350 loss in their stock ( on only 4 stocks owned)
• teredyne is still winning
  

liquidity puts, CDO's and an attempt to understand the mortgage crisis

(with the help of David Leonardt, NYTimes 3.19)
“liquidity puts,” an obscure kind of financial contract, until they started causing big problems for Citigroup.

... global investors, flush with cash from Asia’s boom or rising oil prices, demanded good returns. Wall Street had an answer: subprime mortgages.

Because these loans go to people stretching to afford a house, they come with higher interest rates — even if they’re disguised by low initial rates — and thus higher returns. The mortgages were then sliced into pieces and bundled into investments, often known as collateralized debt obligations, or C.D.O.’s.... Once bundled, different types of mortgages could be sold to different groups of investors.

Investors then goosed their returns through leverage, the oldest strategy around. They made $100 million bets with only $1 million of their own money and $99 million in debt. If the value of the investment rose to just $101 million, the investors would double their money. Home buyers did the same thing, by putting little money down on new houses... The Fed under Alan Greenspan helped make it all possible, sharply reducing interest rates, to prevent a double-dip recession after the technology bust of 2000, and then keeping them low for several years.

my stocks update

Most commodities, with the exception of hogs, gold and nickel, fell on Monday

Specialists say their biggest worry now is not whether the economy is already or will soon be in a recession. Far more fundamental and troubling is the health of the financial system that greases the wheels of capitalism

“The Fed can do no good at all if they effectively print money and give it to the banks, and the banks dig a hole in the ground and put it in there,”“The Fed can do no good at all if they effectively print money and give it to the banks, and the banks dig a hole in the ground and put it in there,” (meaning: the banks need to give out loans with this money to make the plan work!)

New York Times, 3.18.08

They feel that a downturn has been averted for now. One of the biggest commodities brokers stock plunges 65%, many investors refuse to trade through them, some poor bloke loses 140M in unsecured wheat futures, which kinda tells us what really is going on out there in the trading world - doesn't it?! there are so many risky, leveraging, counter leveraging, buying on margin, etc tactics - a playground of real(?) money being toyed with. Will this crisis put a damper on some of this, or just up the ante?

The Hongkong, Shanghai and India market s all down by 5%, Japan up 1.5%

Where are all these people putting their money now$

The answer: buy gold! (it's now at record $1000 an ounce)

and it supposed to keep rising (reuters, evening news)
either that, or go sell grandma's jewlery

The DOW loses 25% of yesterdays gain

The DOW drops 25%.

Teredyne is still up 11% from when I purchased its stock (3.12), 10AM (3.13) it drops to a total of 8% gain as the stock drops 2.5% and I "lose" 50 bucks right there. I still haven't sold Google, I'm hovering with my choices - I could put it all in Teredyn, but as it is now also dropping.....

I recognize the feeling many stockholders must be having now: "I've got to do something! anything is better than just sitting here, watching my stocks shrink" So either one sells out stocks or one buys stocks that one thinks are overrated so on the long run you make out....

maybe Thom's strategy for buying a few shares in many companies and pigging out at their annual meetings is actually the one where you get the most bang for your buck! At least your having fun, getting drunk, hobnobbing with other stockholders, getting (wacky, or not so wacky) tips, traveling, learning about companies and marketing to investors (and I could bring home pens, pencils, pads, water bottles, all with logos to my kids... i wonder what the newest freebie fad is?

I would go intervnational, although they seem to be responding strongly to the Amenrican markets. My best plan is to get together with a bunch of people in t he class and buy real estate.Even though I think that homes will continue to drop in value for a bit , it would still be advantageous: a rental building.

US stocks soar 400%

oh gee, the banks set an 200Billion infusion from our government ( already trillions in debt) whopee! My stocks regained $245 in one day - how weird is that! and google regained $108. They bought "double-click for 3.1 Billion, the largest purchase in their history - (do they really need it that bad?) and their stock responds. The Wallstreet Journal says, it allows them to competein funkier ads: banners, etc. It could mean jobs here and internationally.

I wish I would approve of the measures taken, the newspaper are blathering about the banks now having cash to offer more loans! o, that's the absolute most ridiculous thing I've heard!

Teredyne had been the only stock that had gained up to now: 11%. Who would have known?

tips follow-up

research showed that Horizon was not a publicly traded stock


Saturn seemed the most exciting possibility, but

Western Digital and Perini - Solid!

Barron's Online announces positive news in the hard drive industry yesterday (WesternDigitalCorp)

--solid demand even in the Seasonally soft 1st quarter

--good mix and pricing strategies drive margins higher

--supply more closely aligned with demand

--discipline in capacity expansion

I am glad I bought WDC - it actually feels good to be investing in a product I like, marketing and customer service I respect! Computer safety is in my mind still a growing market (especially when I read about these geeks having 3 or 4 back up hard drives - external hard drives for photos and for movie collections). They a becoming the new zip drive.... I am still up $100 on their stock.
Google is up 1.3% this morning. Whoopee! Perini came out with their earning report - my god they are taking in $987,356,ooo in revenue, with 22,653,000 in profits. nice big fat numbers.
I am only down 30cents a share on them - It seems that there health is not the usual among the large construction companies. Perini secured 1 billion i new contracts in the 4th quarter adn another 520 mill since then - I sure would like to see these people at work writing proposals , wooing clients and closing deals!

About Art Tech Group

considering switching to Artg from google

Revenue for 2007 grew 33% to $137.1 M, in 2006, $103.2 M. At the end of 2007, ATG had $51.9 million in cash.......acquisitions, more acquisitions...."Bulgari shines" Here is the article, which shows me that they are creating a must-have product the most influential internet retailers use ( great strategy - get the leaders forst and others will want it too) Some of their customers;

AT&T, Best Buy, Bulgari, Coca Cola, Continental Airlines, CVS, Dell, Diane von Furstenberg, DirecTV, eLuxury, El Corte Ingles, Expedia, France Telecom, Harvard Business School Publishing, Hewlett-Packard, Hilton, HSBC, Intuit, Jenny Craig, Louis Vuitton, Macy's, Mercedes Benz, Meredith, Microsoft, Neiman Marcus, New York & Company, Nokia, NutriSystem, OfficeMax, PayPal, Philips, Procter & Gamble, Sears, Sony, Symantec, Target, T-Mobile, Tommy Hilfiger, Urban Outfitters, Verizon, Viacom, Vodafone and Walgreens.

small caps

Here is an article that looks at the past 8 years in a different light: It wasn't tech that was making the largest returns, but these finely selected small ( under 200M) companies. Their stocks grew 8,000% in the years 1996-2006. Mid-caps grew around 1,200%. I'm not surprised that they were obscure or around since 1930 and then shot up. They also did not grow into mega companies to achieve that return - showing that growth is not necessarily profit. (go teredyn, 7.05 profit margin on 1.1 B)
I remember reading an article on a invest circle who would only invest locally - they researched and even visited these companies and came out with an average annual gain of 25%. This is an investment strategy that attracts me.

investerpedia: One of the biggest advantages of investing in small-cap stocks is the opportunity to beat institutional investors. Because mutual funds have restrictions that limit them from buying large portions of any one issuer's outstanding shares, some mutual funds would not be able to give the small cap a meaningful position in the fund.

interesting! so these gems can stay under the radar longer!

The Market's 10 Best Stocks/ Motley Fool
By Tim Hanson (TMF Mmbop) March 2, 2006
10 top performers:

Company	Current Market Cap*	Return 1996-2005
Hansen Natural	$2,070	24,185%
Chico's	$8,480	17,600%
NVR	$4,660	7,150%
Christopher & Banks	$797	6,795%
Meritage Homes (NYSE: MTH)	$1,620	5,860%
American Eagle Outfitters	$3,830	4,850%
Comtech Telecommunications	$713	4,315%
SCP Pool (Nasdaq: POOL)	$2,270	4,090%
Engineered Support Systems**	N/A	3,800%
Jos. A. Bank	$771	3,790%
	Total Average Return	8,240%

*In millions.

There are more than a few things shocking about this list. First, these companies are obscure. Hansen Natural -- the greatest stock of the past decade -- has sold all-natural juices and sodas since the 1930s. Chico's sells clothes to women in their 30s, and 10 years ago it had fewer than 250 stores. SCP Pool -- a company with 45% annual returns -- wholesales swimming pool supplies and chemicals!

Second, there's only one "tech" firm on the list -- and it's not one of the famous ones. Only four analysts are currently following Comtech.

The greatest stocks of the past decade were:

1. Obscure.
2. Ignored.
3. Small.

Ten years ago, none of these companies had a heavy following from the pros on Wall Street. Even more incredibly, some still don't.

Finally, none of these companies was worth more than $200 million 10 years ago. After 10 years of incredible growth, seven of them are still small caps! Only Chico's, NVR, and American Eagle have moved comfortably into mid-cap status.

P/E ratio of my stocks and the concept

Today I'm researching P/E ratio, which according to investorpedia is:

market value per share/earnings per share

it usually takes the last 4 quarters into account and is susceptible to accounting manipulations.
It shows how much investors are willing to pay per $ of earnings; it is most valuable comparing earnings within industry groups. ( it make sense to me that each industry has different profit ranges and different earnings per share.)

So, here are my companies:

google: 35.44
perini 10.92
teradyne 28.62
pacific digital 9.85
wells fargo 12.27
gr.wolf resorts N/A

I had not been aware of the psychological aspect of price/earnings ratio! But here it is again - if many many investors think you a have great stock and are willing to buy, you have a nice plump ratio - of course earnings must be good. So that must mean that in years where a co. invests a lot, which may bring earnings down, and people keep your stock...let's see then it's high!

So if you don;t have high earnings and people still buy or hold your stock the P/E ratio looks good; If you however have high earnings, but nobody gives a damn, they don't buy or actually sell (maybe because they think you can't keep going up) then your P/E ration is low.

so google is either high expected growth or high expectations

teradyne: revenue: 1.1 B, gross profit 660M, approx 4 M shares
(quarterly growth-1%, quart. earnings growth 54%!)
possible growth stock

pacific digital: only 9.85; fair value, no hype around it now
perini same

great wolf: N/A could mean P/E is negative; they have been building 3 Lodges with Water parks
yepp: 22% revue growth, -5% profit

--------------------------

earnings per share is profit/shares; so 10 m/1m =1, 10m/100,000= 10

hmmm, same profit divided by more shares is less than that profit divided by more.....

yahoo/google

so in whittling down my stocks i dumped yahoo and kept google:

all the talk about google buying yahoo, brought yahoo up 30% and google down 18%, I'm hesitating on selling, just because I don't know what to buy, yet now I'm wondering if I may recoup my losses holding on to gooogle, as people may buy google again, because it went down that far-- now I realize that I am caught in the game, the wondering, the reading wall street journal and motley fool and trying to deduct out of my sparce knowledge, a hint about what may or not happen.

google quickly announced their health care application - a great marketing move, great timing. i guess they are trying to stop the fall.

I "lost $697.24" today, wow - everyone is talking about rates of inflation, value of the dollar against the Euro falling more. Last week it was recession and today a tired president bush say's that it won't be so bad and that the american economy is resilient, but even he doesn't seem to pay attention to his own words.

Western Digital - some investors are downgrading it, because they see consumer demand falling lower than expected and don't see it rising till the holiday season again, by which time other competitors could come up and positions themselves nicely.....hmmmph, down goes their stock, but not so drastically and I look and see that May 2007 the stock price was at $18 and now its around $30. It seems like it might be a good thing to fly under the radar sometimes for a stock, so you don't have such an emotional rollercoaster of stock buyers and sellers reacting.

So, my last comment: JCPenney - they only lose 3,5% of earnings at the end of 2008 instead of 3.8 or 4.5% so people are happyand hold on to their stock -- another company, whose name eludes me, because i didn't take enough notes in my two day flurry of stock selection, well they dissapoint share holders because their sales under perform on what they hoped to earn - they went from $108 Million in sales to 184 Million! , but missed there mark buy 5 or 8 Million and everyone starts selling off stock....

details, i must get into them more......

google keeps dropping - I'd like to sell - I think it will drop for a while....

why i chose the other stocks

Since I was determined to pick at least one stock from a Mass. company, I stumbled onto "the Boston 100" put out by the Boston Globe, which gave a plethora of information. I was intrigued by the way they organized the companies into top ten lists: top ten in sales, top ten in stock value over 10 years, IPOs, etc

I finally chose Perini Corp. a multi national Building firm with huge government and a slew of humongous Las Vegas Resorts - but what got me (I admit), was that one of the newest news feeds on them, was that they were able to successfully renegotiate a mortgage deal with a Swiss Bank; This allows them to continue building on a month to month basis on a resort in Vegas. That it made the news that they have the negotiating prowess to do so impressed me. These guys will keep building even if they have to bail out their client!

I also know nothing about the construction field and although most stocks I've looked into nose dived early this year - Perini did less so, so I attribute their dive to general cold feet in general not the company itself - which despite building slow downs in the home building arena has orders lined up for the next few years. I'm worried about putting all of Thom's hard earned money into the mob.......

TER or "Teradyne, Inc. manufactures and sells automatic test equipment worldwide. The company offers semiconductor test systems used for wafer level and device package testing. These chips are used in automotive, communications, consumer, computer, and electronic game applications." From yahoo's profile... High in Boston 100, an industry I don't understand - so good learning opportunity, seems to me that they are selling all the right things. 1 billion in sales, 3600 employees. more later. I realize I'm forgetting the other reasons - must go back and check notes.

I canned these cause I wanted to simplify my portfolio

• Yahoo although I would like to just follow the action, but I don't expect this possible buyout to offer any benefits in the short run here.
• ARTG although it is an upstart from Jan. and they are buying up their own stock because they think it is undervalued!
• BAC cause I wanted it for the same reason I bought Wells Fargo
  
• MFE
• SNE
  

I forgot to note yesterday that the product I bought from Western Digital was a external hardrive for my computer, a sleek, shiny red gadget with a discreet power-on light.

Great Wolf Resorts: As a mom I know how absolutely cool these indoor parks are for kids - You don't need to deal with the weather, don't need to fly to get there, you are all under one roof....I think that the demand for vacations closer to home, where you don't need to pay for airline ticket is going up.....Just to note, I would not like to go there, I like the weather, camping, traveling far....my kids think they would love it - actually if they knew about it, would put a lot of pressure on me (I think they should do tv ads for this reason alone - again: great opportunities)

friends give advice

here are some responses to my call for stock suggestions:

I am interested in Horizon Dairy- you know the milk and yogurt people, I know there have been fluctuations with the price of organic milk and I wonder how the company is doing , whole foods what is the history of that stock. Ha it been correctly valued, What is the P/E ratio.... I would love to see what you come up with...
..............
Starbucks has been having an extremely bad year, and recently announced major layoffs, which should send their stock prices swinging. It will be interesting to watch.

Pfizer just pulled a major ad campaign after charges of misperception. They will also start swinging and will mount a response. Also interesting to watch.

Visa has announced an IPO. Their stock will start trading in mid-March for the first time. As one of the few IPOs this year, its performance will be seen as a market indicator, making it interesting, too.

One of the major American car companies (Saturn?) just announced a new line of hybrids. This may boost their stock price.

The New York Stock Exchange, itself, is a publicly traded company. You could learn a great deal about how markets work just by researching the exchange and the factors which affect its stock price.

I set my stocks - spent my $20,000!

These are the stocks I have decided on:

Western Digital, WDC - I picked this company, because I love their product and in researching my purchased realized that they have an 80% share of the hard drive market( impressive), I liked their branding, advertising, website and materials included in their product. Their stock price is at 32.97, with the 2 year high being around 35, which means that they did not fall as far as other stocks in the beginning of this year. Their quarterly earnings growth is over 100% and income hovers around 900 M. My notebook harddrive is sleek, shiny and red!

Google - it's a great company and although it is priced high, I still think they are on the right track and therefore their stock could continue to rise - this gives me the opportunity to follow an expensive stock, without risk! I should have bought this stock 8 years ago and didn't so this is my way to deal with that missed opportunity.
Google's stock price has grown to almost $800 a share to now around 450. I have watched them grow strategically grow into a firma that could have it's thumb in the pie of just about every other company in the world - that is great placement. At this point, whether you advertise on line or want you website searched or want to find anything about anything - most go to google!
Their revenue is 18 B with 24% profit - need i say more?

Wells Fargo - well reading the blogs, Forbes magazine and business week; they all agree that these finacial stocks have been pummeled to a rate lower "than they deserve" so in the long run they should rebound to a more realistic price. I have chosen Wells Fargo , honestly, because of good ol' american West mystic and because I'm made at just about every other bank, as my banks have switched hand multiple times in the last 15 years and there was no customer loyalty along the way! Their revenue is 34B with 22B profit in 2008. At the moment I bought, financial blogs were confident that Wells Fargo was not going to sucked in much deeper into the crisis.

Great Wolf Resorts - I am ambivalent about this one: Great Product, new resorts opening, but I hated their press material, the language- boring - This company needs to restructure, re-organize, they are seriously not taking advantage of their strengths and the financial management is not managing their loans ( they have had to sell off property) I'm impressed that despite all these drawbacks their sales are continuously up by double digits - There is opportunity here...

more later....