Stock Market News & Stocks to Watch from StraightStocks » Fred Fuld http://www.straightstocks.com Leading Stock Market News, Opinions and Commentary Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:32:19 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 Ken Fisher Interview – Part 4 – Female Scam Artists and Selling the Scam – Stockerblog Exclusive http://www.straightstocks.com/stock-watch/ken-fisher-interview-part-4-%e2%80%93-female-scam-artists-and-selling-the-scam-%e2%80%93-stockerblog-exclusive/ http://www.straightstocks.com/stock-watch/ken-fisher-interview-part-4-%e2%80%93-female-scam-artists-and-selling-the-scam-%e2%80%93-stockerblog-exclusive/#comments Wed, 21 Oct 2009 22:59:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-3957293992784153551 http://www.straightstocks.com/stock-watch/ken-fisher-interview-part-4-%e2%80%93-female-scam-artists-and-selling-the-scam-%e2%80%93-stockerblog-exclusive/feed/ 0 Stocks Going Ex Dividend the Fourth Week of October http://www.straightstocks.com/stock-watch/stocks-going-ex-dividend-the-fourth-week-of-october/ http://www.straightstocks.com/stock-watch/stocks-going-ex-dividend-the-fourth-week-of-october/#comments Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:06:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-3772419283791955422 http://www.straightstocks.com/stock-watch/stocks-going-ex-dividend-the-fourth-week-of-october/feed/ 0 I Wonder What the Fire Insurance Costs on This Real Estate http://www.straightstocks.com/real-estate-3/i-wonder-what-the-fire-insurance-costs-on-this-real-estate/ http://www.straightstocks.com/real-estate-3/i-wonder-what-the-fire-insurance-costs-on-this-real-estate/#comments Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:08:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-4649535279450585855 http://www.straightstocks.com/real-estate-3/i-wonder-what-the-fire-insurance-costs-on-this-real-estate/feed/ 0 Goldman Sachs Invested in Chinese Car Maker http://www.straightstocks.com/stock-watch/goldman-sachs-invested-in-chinese-car-maker/ http://www.straightstocks.com/stock-watch/goldman-sachs-invested-in-chinese-car-maker/#comments Wed, 23 Sep 2009 07:17:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-4556448828256830702 http://www.straightstocks.com/stock-watch/goldman-sachs-invested-in-chinese-car-maker/feed/ 0 Can Debt Free Selling At Cash Stocks Beat the Dow? Up 29% in Two Months http://www.straightstocks.com/stock-watch/can-debt-free-selling-at-cash-stocks-beat-the-dow-up-29-in-two-months/ http://www.straightstocks.com/stock-watch/can-debt-free-selling-at-cash-stocks-beat-the-dow-up-29-in-two-months/#comments Wed, 13 May 2009 03:11:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-7104801840950412844 http://www.straightstocks.com/stock-watch/can-debt-free-selling-at-cash-stocks-beat-the-dow-up-29-in-two-months/feed/ 0 Bernie Madoff’s Autograph is Dropping as Fast as his Hedge Fund http://www.straightstocks.com/stock-watch/bernie-madoffs-autograph-is-dropping-as-fast-as-his-hedge-fund/ http://www.straightstocks.com/stock-watch/bernie-madoffs-autograph-is-dropping-as-fast-as-his-hedge-fund/#comments Sun, 26 Apr 2009 06:19:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-5497485992611189465 http://www.straightstocks.com/stock-watch/bernie-madoffs-autograph-is-dropping-as-fast-as-his-hedge-fund/feed/ 0 Top 5 Selling Investment Books: What a Depressing Bunch of Titles http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/top-5-selling-investment-books-what-a-depressing-bunch-of-titles/ http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/top-5-selling-investment-books-what-a-depressing-bunch-of-titles/#comments Sat, 21 Feb 2009 06:21:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-1474562166587678090 http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/top-5-selling-investment-books-what-a-depressing-bunch-of-titles/feed/ 0 At Least One Stock Market is Going Up http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/at-least-one-stock-market-is-going-up/ http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/at-least-one-stock-market-is-going-up/#comments Sat, 21 Feb 2009 05:58:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-4473192263126394793 http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/at-least-one-stock-market-is-going-up/feed/ 0 Guest Article: Green in a Recession http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/guest-article-green-in-a-recession/ http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/guest-article-green-in-a-recession/#comments Sat, 21 Feb 2009 04:55:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-6570422555078790045 http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/guest-article-green-in-a-recession/feed/ 0 Steve Jobs Autobiography http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/steve-jobs-autobiography/ http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/steve-jobs-autobiography/#comments Sat, 21 Feb 2009 04:35:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-4597003120021725738 http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/steve-jobs-autobiography/feed/ 0 Bill Gates Invests in Trash http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/bill-gates-invests-in-trash/ http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/bill-gates-invests-in-trash/#comments Sat, 21 Feb 2009 04:23:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-7385069384641328612 http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/bill-gates-invests-in-trash/feed/ 0 Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Closes at Lowest Level in 5 Years http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/warren-buffetts-berkshire-hathaway-closes-at-lowest-level-in-5-years/ http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/warren-buffetts-berkshire-hathaway-closes-at-lowest-level-in-5-years/#comments Sat, 21 Feb 2009 04:08:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-2584847022837721142 http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/warren-buffetts-berkshire-hathaway-closes-at-lowest-level-in-5-years/feed/ 0 JetBlue Offers Ticket Refunds to Laid Off Workers http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/jetblue-offers-ticket-refunds-to-laid-off-workers/ http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/jetblue-offers-ticket-refunds-to-laid-off-workers/#comments Sat, 21 Feb 2009 03:53:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-4424519787036387310 http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/jetblue-offers-ticket-refunds-to-laid-off-workers/feed/ 0 Watch Out Pepsi and Coke! Get Ready for the Cow Urine Soft Drink http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/watch-out-pepsi-and-coke-get-ready-for-the-cow-urine-soft-drink/ http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/watch-out-pepsi-and-coke-get-ready-for-the-cow-urine-soft-drink/#comments Thu, 19 Feb 2009 05:35:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-6015963904623917967 http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/watch-out-pepsi-and-coke-get-ready-for-the-cow-urine-soft-drink/feed/ 0 Stockerblog.com Exclusive: Interview with Natalie Pace – Part 1 http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/stockerblogcom-exclusive-interview-with-natalie-pace-%e2%80%93-part-1/ http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/stockerblogcom-exclusive-interview-with-natalie-pace-%e2%80%93-part-1/#comments Sun, 25 Jan 2009 04:33:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-4378680085686531140 http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/stockerblogcom-exclusive-interview-with-natalie-pace-%e2%80%93-part-1/feed/ 0 Book Review: Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is by Natalie Pace http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/book-review-put-your-money-where-your-heart-is-by-natalie-pace/ http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/book-review-put-your-money-where-your-heart-is-by-natalie-pace/#comments Tue, 20 Jan 2009 07:50:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-890575138811733423 http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/book-review-put-your-money-where-your-heart-is-by-natalie-pace/feed/ 0 Review of the 2009 Macworld Conference and Expo http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/review-of-the-2009-macworld-conference-and-expo/ http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/review-of-the-2009-macworld-conference-and-expo/#comments Sun, 11 Jan 2009 08:17:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-7694424538710177624 http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/review-of-the-2009-macworld-conference-and-expo/feed/ 0 Book Review: Ten Roads to Riches http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/book-review-ten-roads-to-riches/ http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/book-review-ten-roads-to-riches/#comments Sun, 28 Dec 2008 21:55:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-6171290608728563970 http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/book-review-ten-roads-to-riches/feed/ 0 Stockerblog’s James Bond Stock Index Update: Down 6.47% http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/stockerblogs-james-bond-stock-index-update-down-647/ http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/stockerblogs-james-bond-stock-index-update-down-647/#comments Mon, 08 Dec 2008 04:14:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-9071087511597375869 http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/stockerblogs-james-bond-stock-index-update-down-647/feed/ 0 Top Stock Market Book Gifts http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/top-stock-market-book-gifts/ http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/top-stock-market-book-gifts/#comments Wed, 26 Nov 2008 05:50:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-5339800532696002561 http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/top-stock-market-book-gifts/feed/ 0 James Bond Stock Index http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/james-bond-stock-index/ http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/james-bond-stock-index/#comments Sun, 16 Nov 2008 09:21:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-8109773437923194000
Quantum Of Solace, the latest James Bond movie, starring Daniel Craig and Olga Kurylenko, has just been released, and is supposed to have more product placements than any of the other James Bond movies. There are many publicly traded companies that have paid to have their product appear in the film and several companies that benefit from the Bond movie.

Here are the components of the index:

Ford Motor (F) for the Aston Martin, and the Ford Car that Camille drives.

Heineken Holding NV (HKHHF.PK) for the beer.

Diageo plc (DEO) for the Smirnoff vodka.

Swatch Group (SWGNF.PK) for the Omega watch.

Singapore Air (SINGF.PK) which owns 49% of Virgin Atlantic.

Sony (SNE) Sony Ericsson cell phones, laptop and mobile phones.

Coca Cola (KO) Coca-Cola Zero Zero Seven.

Activision Blizzard, Inc. (ATVI) Quantum of Solace video-game.

Corgi International (CRGI) James Bond collectibles and toys. [A very low cap and therefore very speculative stock]

Avon Products Inc. (AVP) 'Bond Girl 007' women's perfume.

It is interesting to note that through September of this year, the James Bond Stock Index outperformed the Dow Jones Industrial Average, dropping 9.9% versus a drop of 14.2% for the Dow. However, through October of this year, the James Bond index is down 29.1% versus a drop of 26.2% for the Dow. Now that the movie is out, hopefully the James Bond Stock Index will begin to outperform again.

Assumptions:
This is a price-weighted index, similar to the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Dividends were included.

Other celebrity indexes worth checking out:
Paris Hilton Stock Index
Jessica Alba Stock Index
Eva Longoria Stock Index
Gisele Bundchen Stock Index
Heidi Klum Stock Index
President Barack Obama Stock Index

Author owns F.

By Fred Fuld for Stockerblog.com.
]]> http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/james-bond-stock-index/feed/ 0 Highest Yielding Income Partnership Stocks over 8% http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/highest-yielding-income-partnership-stocks-over-8/ http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/highest-yielding-income-partnership-stocks-over-8/#comments Fri, 24 Oct 2008 04:47:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-7021468047964392015 income trusts.

For example, income partnerships don't send out 1099 forms, they send out a Schedule K-1 Form, and the income is reported on your tax return differently from regular dividends. In addition, you should never, ever put an MLP into a retirement plan because of the UBTI or Unrelated Business Taxable Income problem, which could put the tax deferred status of your retirement plan in jeopardy, based on what I understand. MLP closed end funds should not be a problem. However, since I am not an accountant, please discuss MLP's with your accountant or CPA for clarification, before investing in MLPs.

Most MLP's are generally involved in pipeline businesses, usually oil and gas, and usually have very high dividends. Here are some with some high yields.

Terra Nitrogen Company, L.P. (TNH) a Sioux City, Iowa based company producer and distributor of nitrogen fertilizer products, has a yield of over 16.9%. They distribute anhydrous ammonia and urea ammonium nitrate solutions. This New York Stock Exchange company has a P/E of 6.

Atlas Pipeline Partners LP (APL) is a Pennsylvania based company natural gas distributor with approximately 7,900 miles of intrastate gas gathering pipelines, that yields 16.5%. They have a forward P/E of 7 and a PEG of 2.56.

Rio Vista Energy Partners LP (RVEP), a producer of oil and natural gas, yields 16%. Earnings have recently been negative.

Teekay LNG Partners LP. (TGP) is a marine transportation company which yields 15%. They transport liquefied natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, and crude oil. The stock has a forward PE of 9 and a PEG of 1.99.

Ferrellgas Partners LP (FGP), the propane distribution company, has a yield of 12.3%. This Overland Park, Kansas company distributes gas throughout the US. The stock has a P/E of 40 and a PEG of 2.88.

Another high yield partnership is Energy Transfer Partners L.P. (ETP) which has a payout of 9.8%. The company is in the business of transporting and storing natural gas through its pipelines. The stock, which trades on the NYSE, has a P/E of 9.

You can find an Excel spreadsheet list of over a dozen master limited partnerships, which can be downloaded, sorted, added to and changed, at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Author does not own any of the above.

By Fred Fuld at Stockerblog.com
]]> http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/highest-yielding-income-partnership-stocks-over-8/feed/ 0 Stocks Going Ex Dividend Mid October http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/stocks-going-ex-dividend-mid-october/ http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/stocks-going-ex-dividend-mid-october/#comments Mon, 29 Sep 2008 04:58:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-4261808944524097129
If you are interested in buying dividends, there are several stocks in several different sectors and industries to choose from. Remember that, in order to be entitled to the dividend, you have to buy the stock before the ex-dividend date, and you can't sell the stock until after the ex date. The actual dividend may not be paid for another month.

All of the following stocks have market caps over $500 million, and yields over 3%.

Sims Group Limited (SMS) Ex-div date: 10/7/2008 Yield: 4.0% .

Genworth Financial, Inc. (GNW) Ex-div date: 10/8/2008 PE: 9 PEG: 0.97 Yield: 3.8% .

Lincoln National Corporation (LNC) Ex-div date: 10/8/2008 PE: 13 PEG: 1.28 Yield: 3.4% .

Masco Corporation (MAS) Ex-div date: 10/8/2008 PE: 41 PEG: 3.30 Yield: 4.9% .

NSTAR (NST) Ex-div date: 10/8/2008 PE: 16 PEG: 2.50 Yield: 4.1% .

Progress Energy, Inc. (PGN) Ex-div date: 10/8/2008 PE: 15 PEG: 2.28 Yield: 5.6% .

Tomkins plc (TKS) Ex-div date: 10/8/2008 PE: 16 PEG: 2.97 Yield: 11.0% .

Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) Ex-div date: 10/8/2008 PE: 16 PEG: 1.80 Yield: 5.4% .

WGL Holdings, Inc. (WGL) Ex-div date: 10/8/2008 PE: 15 Yield: 4.2% .

WPP Group plc (WPPGY) Ex-div date: 10/8/2008 PE: 12 Yield: 4.1% .

Universal Corporation (UVV) Ex-div date: 10/9/2008 PE: 14 Yield: 3.6% .

Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte (OMAB) Ex-div date: 10/9/2008 Yield: 6.8% .

Corus Entertainment Inc. (CJR) Ex-div date: 10/10/2008 PE: 12 PEG: 0.89 Yield: 3.1% .

Mid-America Apartment (MAA) Ex-div date: 10/10/2008 PE: 79 PEG: 12.72 Yield: 4.9% .

Shaw Communications Inc. (SJR) Ex-div date: 10/13/2008 PE: 14 PEG: 0.84 Yield: 3.7% .

BB&T Corporation (BBT) Ex-div date: 10/15/2008 PE: 13 PEG: 2.06 Yield: 4.8% .

Saul Centers, Inc. (BFS) Ex-div date: 10/15/2008 PE: 30 PEG: 6.92 Yield: 4.0% .

Foot Locker, Inc. (FL) Ex-div date: 10/15/2008 PE: 39 PEG: 2.82 Yield: 3.4% .

Morgan Stanley (MS) Ex-div date: 10/15/2008 PE: 245 PEG: 19.73 Yield: 4.0% .

For more details on dividend definitions, check out definitions of dividend dates. If you like dividend stocks, you should check out the the High Yield Utility stocks and the Monthly Dividend Stocks at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Author owns OMAB.

By Fred Fuld at Stockerblog.com
]]> http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/stocks-going-ex-dividend-mid-october/feed/ 0 Eva Longoria Speaks for Microsoft, Her Index Outperforms the Dow http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/eva-longoria-speaks-for-microsoft-her-index-outperforms-the-dow/ http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/eva-longoria-speaks-for-microsoft-her-index-outperforms-the-dow/#comments Fri, 26 Sep 2008 04:24:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-4552550568131038718
Last year, I developed the Eva Longoria Stock Index. Since Eva is now appearing on the new Microsoft (MSFT) TV commercials, replacing Jerry Seinfeld, I thought it would be appropriate to update her index for this year.

Components of the Eva Longoria Stock Index:

Hanes (HBI) celebrity endorsement

New York & Company (NWY) celebrity endorsement

BEBE (BEBE) SPORT celebrity endorsement

Magnum ice cream brand owned by Unilever (UN) - celebrity endorsement

Pepsi (PEP) celebrity endorsement

Range Rover made by Land Rover, subsidiary of Ford Premier Automotive Group, a division of the Ford Motor Company (F) - celebrity endorsement

Starred in Desperate Housewives produced by ABC Television owned by Disney (DIS), also starred in ABC's remake of Dragnet

Starred in The Young and the Restless produced by Sony Pictures Television a subsidiary of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is a division of Sony (SNE)

Microsoft (MSFT) 'I'm a PC' television commercial cameo appearance celebrity endorsement [this stock not involved in the index in above chart as this is a new endorsement]

Assumptions:
This is price-weighted index, similar to the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Dividends were included.

Returns:
Over the six month time period shown, the Eva Longoria Stock Index was down only 4%, versus the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which was down 8.7%.

Check out additional celebrity stock indices such as Gisele Bundchen, Heidi Klum, and Angelina Jolie.

Author owns F, DIS, and MSFT.

By Fred Fuld at Stockerblog.com
]]> http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/eva-longoria-speaks-for-microsoft-her-index-outperforms-the-dow/feed/ 0 Seven Stocks Selling for Over $2000 a Share http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/seven-stocks-selling-for-over-2000-a-share/ http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/seven-stocks-selling-for-over-2000-a-share/#comments Wed, 24 Sep 2008 07:15:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-1639586999401853555 Warren Buffett's company is the only high priced share, you would be mistaken. Here are seven that sell for over $2,000 per share.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK-A) sells for $131,000.00 per share. This is the famous company run by Warren Buffett. The stock has a PE of 18 .

Bactolac Pharmaceutical Inc. (BTCA.PK) sells for $30,000.00 per share. They are a a private-label contract manufacturer of vitamins and nutritional supplements. The stock has a PE of 8 .

Sterling Sugars, Inc. (STSU.PK) sells for $19,300.00 per share. The company is a Louisiana based processor of sugarcane, and producer of raw sugar and blackstrap molasses.

American Bank Holdings, Inc. (ABKH.OB) sells for $10,500.00 per share. They are a bank holding company based in Silver Spring, Maryland. The stock has a PE of 4 .

The Seibels Bruce Group (SBBG.PK) sells for $6,400.00 per share. The company is a South Carolina based property and casualty insurance company. The stock has a PE of 49 and pays a yield of 3.85% .

LICT Corporation (LICT.PK) sells for $4,365.00 per share. The company is a rural telecommunications company based in Rye, New York. The stock has a PE of 8 .

Eupa International Corporation (EUPI.PK) sells for $2,800.00 per share. The company provides support, product design, R&D and patent services to Tsann Kuen Enterprise Co., Ltd. a Chinese company.

For more high priced stocks, check out stocks that were selling between $100 and $200 per share.

Author does not own any of the above.

By Fred Fuld at Stockerblog.com
]]> http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/seven-stocks-selling-for-over-2000-a-share/feed/ 0 Do We Really Want Microsoft to Take Over Yahoo http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/do-we-really-want-microsoft-to-take-over-yahoo/ http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/do-we-really-want-microsoft-to-take-over-yahoo/#comments Mon, 22 Sep 2008 06:43:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-8399610238769725426
The above is a spoof of what the Yahoo home page might look like if Microsoft took over Yahoo. Can you see where to log into Yahoo mail? Can you see where to do a web search?

It may sound heresy to say this, especially since I own Yahoo (YHOO) at a loss, but maybe it is just as well that the company didn't get taken over by Microsoft (MSFT), which I also own. Have you looked at the Vista operating system? No wonder so many companies are unwilling to upgrade.

Or even Office 2007. Have you upgraded from 2003? Do you like losing all the menus? Have you tried looking for Headers and Footers in Microsoft Word 2007? Have you tried looking for cell borders in Excel 2007, or tried doing charts the old fashioned way?

Why would Microsoft get rid of the menus that so many Office users are used to and replace them with tabs and ribbons? Why no option to change to Classic View? Are they just trying to keep the software training companies and software how-to book publishers in business?

The final straw is those two commercials with Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld, for which Seinfeld was paid $10 million. Those commercials have now been withdrawn. What was Microsoft selling? Brand recognition??? Obviously, you can blame the advertising agency, but it is the company that makes the final decision on the ads.

I really like Yahoo! Finance, and so do 18 million other people every month. I would hate to see the top American financial web site 'change'.

Maybe there are better business partners for Yahoo. Here are a few suggestions, some of which may be considered a bit of a stretch, of possible buyers: Apple (AAPL), Sony Corp. (SNE), News Corp. (NWS-A), Viacom (VIA-B), Disney (DIS), CBS Corporation (CBS), and even Time Warner (TWX).

Author owns YHOO, MSFT, DIS, and TWX.

By Fred Fuld at Stockerblog.com
]]> http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/do-we-really-want-microsoft-to-take-over-yahoo/feed/ 0 When the Real Estate Market Will Bottom http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/when-the-real-estate-market-will-bottom/ http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/when-the-real-estate-market-will-bottom/#comments Sat, 20 Sep 2008 06:46:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-5511166426338404376
If you are looking for a home to buy to live in, you probably won't get hurt looking for a house to buy now. However, if you are looking for the real bottom in the housing market, either an investment property or a home for yourself, the best day to buy will be November 25, 2009. If you buy on that day, plan on closing December 24, 2009. However, if you miss buying around that time next year, you shouldn't worry about it, as this real estate 'recession' will last for a few years, as it always has in the past. [Unless things will be different this time, which I highly doubt.]

I'm still seeing too many foreclosures, too many vacant homes for sale, too many vacant homes that aren't for sale, and too many 'amateur' and 'newbie' real estate investors jumping into the real estate market, thinking that they can buy a fixer-upper, fix it up, and resell at a quick profit.

Of course, another way to play the real estate market besides owning property directly, is to invest in Real Estate Investment Trusts.

By Fred Fuld at Stockerblog.com
]]> http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/when-the-real-estate-market-will-bottom/feed/ 1 How to Double Your Return in a Rising Market (without margin, without calls) http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/how-to-double-your-return-in-a-rising-market-without-margin-without-calls/ http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/how-to-double-your-return-in-a-rising-market-without-margin-without-calls/#comments Fri, 19 Sep 2008 06:39:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-746497551356400381
An ETF or Exchange Traded Fund is structured to track various stock indices, and the Ultra ETFs are structured to provide double the performance of those indices. Most are traded on the American Stock Exchange. Depending on the ETF, it may even pay a yield. Here are several Ultra ETF's which will should rise by twice as much as the index that are tracking. You just need to pick the Ultra ETF for the sector or index that you think should perform the best.

Ultra Basic Materials ProShares (UYM) has a goal of producing twice the performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Basic Materials index.

Ultra Consumer Goods ProShares (UGE) has a goal of producing twice the performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Consumer Goods index.

Ultra Consumer Services ProShares (UCC) has a goal of producing twice the performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Consumer Services index.

Ultra Dow30 ProShares (DDM) has a goal of producing twice the performance of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Ultra Financials ProShares (UYG) has a goal of producing twice the performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Financials index.

Ultra Health Care ProShares (RXL) has a goal of producing twice the performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Health Care index.

Ultra Industrials ProShares (UXI) has a goal of producing twice the performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Industrials index.

Ultra MidCap400 ProShares (MVV) has a goal of producing twice the performance of the S&P MidCap 400 index.

Ultra Oil & Gas ProShares (DIG) has a goal of producing twice the performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Oil & Gas index.

Ultra QQQ ProShares (QLD) has a goal of producing twice the performance of the NASDAQ 100 Index.

Ultra Real Estate ProShares (URE) has a goal of producing twice the performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Real Estate index.

Ultra Russell MidCap Growth ProShares (UKW) has a goal of producing twice the performance of the Russell MidCap Growth index.

Ultra Russell MidCap Value Proshares (UVU) has a goal of producing twice the performance of the Russell MidCap Value index.

Ultra Russell1000 Growth ProShares (UKF) has a goal of producing twice the performance of the Russell 1000 Growth index.

Ultra Russell1000 Value ProShares (UVG) has a goal of producing twice the performance of the Russell 1000 index.

Ultra Russell2000 Growth ProShares (UKK) has a goal of producing twice the performance of the Russell 2000 Growth index.

Ultra Russell2000 ProShares (UWM) has a goal of producing twice the performance of the Russell 2000 index.

Ultra Russell2000 Value ProShares (UVT) has a goal of producing twice the performance of the Russell 2000 Value index.

Ultra S&P SmallCap600 ProShares (SAA) has a goal of producing twice the performance of the S&P SmallCap 600 Index.

Ultra S&P500 ProShares (SSO) has a goal of producing twice the performance of the S&P 500 index.

Ultra Semiconductor ProShares (USD) has a goal of producing twice the performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Semiconductor index.

Ultra Technology ProShares (ROM) has a goal of producing twice the performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Technology index.

Ultra Telecommunications ProShares (LTL) has a goal of producing twice the performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Telecommunications index.

Ultra Utilities ProShares (UPW) has a goal of producing twice the performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Utilities index.

If you want to be really aggressive, you can consider investing in the UltraShort ETFs, which are structured to provide twice the return [or loss] from the movement in the index. Or if you just want to protect yourself on the downside, you can invest in regular short ETFs. You can also find an Excel database of short ETFs, which can be downloaded, sorted, and changed, at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Author does not own any of the above.

By Fred Fuld at Stockerblog.com
]]> http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/how-to-double-your-return-in-a-rising-market-without-margin-without-calls/feed/ 0 How to Make Money in a Falling Stock Market (without shorting, without puts) http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/how-to-make-money-in-a-falling-stock-market-without-shorting-without-puts/ http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/how-to-make-money-in-a-falling-stock-market-without-shorting-without-puts/#comments Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:51:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-8809657801037053191
An ETF or Exchange Traded Fund is structured to track various stock indices or the inverse of various stock indices. Most are traded on the American Stock Exchange. Depending on the ETF, it may even pay a yield. Here are several ETF's which will rise when stocks drop.

Short Dow30 ProShares (DOG) has a goal of the inverse of the daily performance of the Dow Jones Industrial Average index. In other words, when the Dow drops, this ETF goes up. The fund has a yield of 2.53% .

Short Financials ProShares (SEF) goes up when the Dow Jones U.S. Financials index goes down.

Short MSCI EAFE ProShares (EFZ) goes up when the MSCI EAFE index goes down. MSCI EAFE is a stock market index of foreign stocks, Morgan Stanley Capital International, Europe, Australasia, and Far East.

Short MSCI Emerging Markets ProShares (EUM) goes up when the MSCI Emerging Markets index goes down.

Short MidCap400 ProShares (MYY) goes up when the S&P MidCap 400 index goes down. The fund has a yield of 3.55% .

Short Oil & Gas ProShares (DDG) goes up when the the Dow Jones U.S. Oil & Gas index goes down.

Short QQQ ProShares (PSQ) goes up when the the NASDAQ 100 index goes down. The fund has a yield of 3.13%.

Short Russell2000 ProShares (RWM) goes up when the Russell 2000 index goes down. The fund has a yield of 1.72% .

Short S&P SmallCap600 ProShares (SBB) goes up when the S&P SmallCap 600 index goes down. The fund has a yield of 2.68% .

Short S&P500 ProShares (SH) goes up when the the S&P 500 index goes down. The fund has a yield of 2.62% .

If you want to be really aggressive, you can consider investing in the UltraShort ETFs, which are structured to provide twice the return [or loss] from the movement in the index. You can also find an Excel database of short ETFs, which can be downloaded, sorted, and changed, at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Author does not own any of the above.

By Fred Fuld at Stockerblog.com
]]> http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/how-to-make-money-in-a-falling-stock-market-without-shorting-without-puts/feed/ 1 Nicole Kidman Stock Index http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/nicole-kidman-stock-index/ http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/nicole-kidman-stock-index/#comments Wed, 17 Sep 2008 06:15:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-2718808453848681586
Nicole Kidman is the most overpaid actress in Hollywood, according to a recent report by Forbes Magazine.

Components of the Nicole Kidman Stock Index:

News Corp. (NWS-A) which owns 20th Century Fox, distributor of the movies Australia and Moulon Rouge! in which she won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. Appeared in commercials for SKY Italia is an Italian digital satellite television platform owned by News Corporation.

Time Warner (TWX) Warner Brother's which distributed Margot at the Wedding, The Invasion, Happy Feet, in which she did a voiceover, Eyes Wide Shut, Fur, plus the New Line Cinema division's The Golden Compass.

Sony (SNE) Columbia Pictures distributed the movies Bewitched and Dogville.

Viacom (VIA-B) Paramount Pictures distributed Margot at the Wedding, The Stepford Wives, and The Hours, for which she won an Academy Award for Best Actress.

Disney (DIS) division Miramax distributed Cold Mountain, The Human Stain, and was the international distributor of The Hours.

General Electric (GE) division Universal Pictures, distributed The Interpreter.

Nintendo ADR (NTDOY.PK) face of their advertising campaign for the Nintendo DS games Brain Training and More Brain Training.

Assumptions:
This is price-weighted index, similar to the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Dividends were included.

Returns:
Over the six month time period shown, the Nicole Kidman Stock Index was down only 6.1%, versus the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which was down 10.3%.

Check out additional celebrity stock indices such as Gisele Bundchen, Heidi Klum, and Angelina Jolie.

Author owns TWX and DIS.

By Fred Fuld at Stockerblog.com
]]> http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/nicole-kidman-stock-index/feed/ 0 Stockerblog.com Exclusive: Interview with Ken Fisher – Part 8 – Final Segment http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/stockerblogcom-exclusive-interview-with-ken-fisher-%e2%80%93-part-8-%e2%80%93-final-segment/ http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/stockerblogcom-exclusive-interview-with-ken-fisher-%e2%80%93-part-8-%e2%80%93-final-segment/#comments Wed, 10 Sep 2008 06:20:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-6090779832157111213 Stress and Investing

Stockerblog.com had the pleasure of recently interviewing Ken Fisher, head of the $30 billion Fisher Asset Management, a very long time Forbes columnist, and author of the books Super Stocks, The Wall Street Waltz, 100 Minds That Made the Market, and The Only Three Questions That Count: Investing by Knowing What Others Don't.

He is also coming out with a new book in the Fall, The Ten Roads to Riches: The Way the Wealthy Got There (And How You Can Too!), published by Wiley.

This is the final segment of the interview. If you missed any of the earlier segments of the interview, you can check them out at: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, and Part 7.

Stockerblog.com: I have one other question. I'm assuming that from time to time when you do make mistakes, when you invest in a sector that goes against you, it creates stress. Is there anything that you do to deal with stress?

Fisher: No, not particularly, but I don't think I feel stress as much as most people do. First, I've been at this a long time. Secondly, I've got myself, as I mentioned earlier, real conditioned to the notion that I'm going to make a lot of mistakes, so no particular mistake seems like a big deal to me. I think I've always been lucky that I don't seem to feel stress as much as most people feel stress. But I don't have some special stress reduction technique. There's not like I go in the corner and breathe a certain way or do a certain exercise or go running. I don't particularly do something about stress.

Stockerblog.com: That's kind of interesting that you're conditioned to know that you are going to make mistakes. If you are aware of that ahead of time, I'm sure that can help.

Fisher: But, you know, if I were in a different field, like let's say ice skating, if you're a competitive ice skater, you just can't make any kind of mistake anybody can see, because it just comes right out of your points. If you made one of those mistakes that you see on one of these ice skaters that go and do one of these flippy flip things, they go flying through the air, they come down and go splat, you feel really sorry for them. They are out there really trying and they go splat in front of everybody. The world that I come from, is one where it's more like every time you go out to do the ice skating, a pretty good chunk of everything you do is mistakes. So you've got to get used to it.

Therefore the next mistake is just one more in the process, and so you don't beat yourself up for it too much; you know, you think about somebody like, I'm making this up out of thin air, some musical performers, and they get up in front of the crowd at Carnegie Hall, there in the middle of their performance, and twenty percent of the time, they hit the wrong notes. People wouldn't relate to that very well. I'm in a world where it you hit the wrong notes twenty percent of the time, in the long term, you're thought of as one of the greatest performers ever. So hitting a few wrong notes means nothing.

Stockerblog.com: So as long as you are right roughly two thirds of the time, you're probably in good shape.

Fisher: Yeah, but think of what that means if you are playing music by contrast. I think that most people think like the world of the musician or the ice skater, so when they make a mistake, it's nothing but a terrible catastrophe that leads to being stressed, and they haven't quite gotten themselves to this notion that you're actually going to make less mistakes if you stop worrying about making mistakes.

Another way that I remember that, when I was a boy, it was almost a part of the United States Constitution that boys had to play baseball. So I played baseball. Now I wasn't that good of a baseball player but I played baseball. One of the things that I noted about myself is, when the ball was coming at me and I went to catch it, the more afraid I was, the worse I was at catching it. The less afraid I was, the easier I caught it. The more afraid you are, where you're at the point where your hands start to tremble, it's a lot harder to catch it.

I think you actually do better when you have less stress than when you have more stress. So probably for some people, that attempt to consciously reduce stress is probably a good idea. If you can just get there naturally, it's probably better. It's kind of hard to envision that great baseball players are feeling a lot of stress when the baseball is coming at them.

Stockerblog.com: You've answered all my questions. I really appreciate your time on this. Thanks again.


End of the eighth and final installment of the Interview.

Fisher obviously didn't provide any stock recommendations for the interview, but many of the stocks he has favored in the past can be found in his previous Forbes columns. For example, Royal Dutch Shell plc (RDS-A) (RDS-B), Intel (INTC), Ball Corp. (BLL), and ENI (E).

His book, The Only Three Questions That Count: Investing by Knowing What Others Don't, which would make a great gift for any investor, is available at Amazon.

Author does not own any of the above mentioned stocks.

Interview by Fred Fuld at Stockerblog.com

Copyright 2008 Stockerblog.com, All rights reserved. Reprinting without permission is prohibited.
]]> http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/stockerblogcom-exclusive-interview-with-ken-fisher-%e2%80%93-part-8-%e2%80%93-final-segment/feed/ 0 Stockerblog.com Exclusive: Interview with Ken Fisher – Part 7 http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/stockerblogcom-exclusive-interview-with-ken-fisher-%e2%80%93-part-7/ http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/stockerblogcom-exclusive-interview-with-ken-fisher-%e2%80%93-part-7/#comments Mon, 08 Sep 2008 08:09:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-6110945766773654146 Brains, Benchmarks, and Best Sectors

Stockerblog.com had the pleasure of recently interviewing Ken Fisher, head of the $30 billion Fisher Asset Management, a very long time Forbes columnist, and author of the books Super Stocks, The Wall Street Waltz, 100 Minds That Made the Market, and The Only Three Questions That Count: Investing by Knowing What Others Don't.

He is also coming out with a new book in the Fall, The Ten Roads to Riches: The Way the Wealthy Got There (And How You Can Too!), published by Wiley.

If you missed any of the earlier segments of the interview, you can check them out: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, and Part 6.

Stockerblog.com: In the chapter on What my Brain is Doing to Mislead Me, one of the key things I got out of that chapter is looking at benchmarks because if you don't look at benchmarks, in other words, if the market is down in general and your portfolio is down, obviously that can do things to your brain if you don't look at it from a perspective standpoint, right?

Fisher: I think that's right, Another way to see that is, on the upside, an awful lot of people who are investors are investors who are trying to prove how smart they are. When you meet them and talk to them, you can really see their ego right out front, they hate the notion of a benchmark, because what they want is to say 'I'm smart'. They don't want the notion that its up 20 and I'm up 15 and I'm not smart.

The benchmark actually allows you to really calibrate how much real alpha you have, and it apprises you to say its up 20, 'I'm smart'.

In other words, the benchmark helps you measure risk, and the guy who want to lead with his ego wants to denote the notion that because he's so smart, there is no risk. If I'm all knowing, there isn't any risk, right?

Stockerblog.com: Any other suggestions that maybe you've come up since you wrote the book of how to prevent your brain from misleading you?

Fisher: No, I don't think I really have a lot of help on that that's new. I haven't had some revelation since the book came out.

Stockerblog.com: Any particular sectors or industries you like right now?

Fisher: Yeah, I'm of the feeling, which most people aren't, that this which is quite technically a bear market, is really more like a big long grinding correction of a bull market; and I think when it's over, probably the sectors that have been leading before this began will continue to be the sectors that lead. So that would take you back into materials, energy, and industrials, and emerging markets.

One of the points that they're not very big on right now is that if we were in this global recession that so many people fear, if we're really in that world, because the emerging market stocks and countries are so dependent on developed world demand, then stocks would be tanking.

In fact, all year long they've been acting in line with the market. To me, that's a sign we're not really in that world, which says to me we're coming out that other side of this period, we're going to have a resumption of the world we were in before.


End of Part 7 of the Interview – Stay tuned for the eighth and final segment of the interview in the next couple days, where Fisher discusses dealing with stress when investing in the market.

Fisher obviously didn't provide any stock recommendations for the interview, but many of the stocks he has favored in the past can be found in his previous Forbes columns. For example, Novartis AG (NVS), Nokia (NOK), Rohm & Haas (ROH), and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ).

His book, The Only Three Questions That Count: Investing by Knowing What Others Don't, which would make a great gift for any investor, is available at Amazon.

Author does not own any of the above mentioned stocks.

Interview by Fred Fuld at Stockerblog.com

Copyright 2008 Stockerblog.com, All rights reserved. Reprinting without permission is prohibited.
]]> http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/stockerblogcom-exclusive-interview-with-ken-fisher-%e2%80%93-part-7/feed/ 0 Top Stocks Going Ex Dividend End of September http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/top-stocks-going-ex-dividend-end-of-september/ http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/top-stocks-going-ex-dividend-end-of-september/#comments Mon, 08 Sep 2008 04:35:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-4493409007027031320
If you are interested in buying dividends, there are several stocks in several different sectors and industries to choose from. Remember that, in order to be entitled to the dividend, you have to buy the stock before the ex-dividend date, and you can't sell the stock until after the ex date. The actual dividend may not be paid for another month.

All of the following stocks have market caps over $500 million, PEs below 20, PEGs below 2, and yields over 3%.

Regions Financial Corporation (RF) Ex-div date: 9/15/2008 Yield: 3.6% PE: 7 PEG 1.32 .

Bancolombia S.A. (CIB) Ex-div date: 9/17/2008 Yield: 3.5% PE: 10 PEG 1.20 .

Cincinnati Financial Corporation (CINF) Ex-div date: 9/17/2008 Yield: 5.2% PE: 15 PEG 1.54 .

Fulton Financial Corp. (FULT) Ex-div date: 9/17/2008 Yield: 5.6% PE: 13 PEG 1.92 .

General Electric Company (GE) Ex-div date: 9/18/2008 Yield: 4.5% PE: 13 PEG 1.19 .

Pzena Investment Management, Inc. (PZN) Ex-div date: 9/24/2008 Yield: 4.9% PE: 7 PEG 0.48 .

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (AJG) Ex-div date: 9/26/2008 Yield: 4.8% PE: 17 PEG 1.78 .

Sterling Financial Corporation (STSA) Ex-div date: 9/26/2008 Yield: 3.8% PE: 10 PEG 0.77 .

Willis Group Holdings Limited (WSH) Ex-div date: 9/26/2008 Yield: 3.1% PE: 13 PEG 0.99 .

For more details on dividend definitions, check out definitions of dividend dates. If you like dividend stocks, you should check out the the High Yield Utility stocks and the Monthly Dividend Stocks at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Author does not own any of the above.

By Fred Fuld at Stockerblog.com
]]> http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/top-stocks-going-ex-dividend-end-of-september/feed/ 0 Stockerblog.com Exclusive: Interview with Ken Fisher – Part 6 http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/stockerblogcom-exclusive-interview-with-ken-fisher-%e2%80%93-part-6/ http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/stockerblogcom-exclusive-interview-with-ken-fisher-%e2%80%93-part-6/#comments Wed, 03 Sep 2008 18:11:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-3795651342233080079 Good CEOs versus Bad CEOs

Stockerblog.com had the pleasure of recently interviewing Ken Fisher, head of the $30 billion Fisher Asset Management, a very long time Forbes columnist, and author of the books Super Stocks, The Wall Street Waltz, 100 Minds That Made the Market, and The Only Three Questions That Count: Investing by Knowing What Others Don't.

He is also coming out with a new book in the Fall, The Ten Roads to Riches: The Way the Wealthy Got There (And How You Can Too!), published by Wiley.

If you missed Part 1 of the interview, you can see it here, and if you missed Part 2, you can see it here. Also check out Part 3 and Part 4.

Stockerblog.com: Your second question covered in the book, ' What can I fathom that others can’t?', is that something you can do on a micro level, in other words down to the stock as opposed to the sector or the industry or the economy as a whole?

Fisher: Yes. It's easier to make the questions work in a marketing sense for a book when they're more macro-ish, because we can talk about something that everyone can think about. The deficit. The price of oil. Those are the things that everybody has some ability to get on the page with. When you start talking about a single stock, it's harder to get everyone on the page, so it doesn't work as well for demonstration purposes in the book. But absolutely, its absolutely true that it could be either a macro point that relates to single stock or a micro point that relates to a single stock.

A micro point that relates to a single stock, it is a huge one, it is such an easy no brainer is that most people get it but they don't get it. Here's this guy, he just gone to go run this small cap company, and I know he's an idiot. Short the stock. Or I know he's the greatest thing since sliced bread. I'm going to own the stock heavy. I know he's the greatest guy since sliced bread, and everybody else doesn't. I've found out something other people don't know. They think he's an idiot, I know he's great. Make sure you're right.

If you can figure out lousy CEOs, that's a big one. Of course, that takes you on the short side. I mean, I can think of a company right now where they just announced the new CEO and I know the guy is just a dodo, and it's a perfectly phenomenal short opportunity, since the guy couldn't manage his way out of a paper bag. That's knowing something other people don't know.

Why would they put him in if he's lousy, well, the answer is that happens all the time. He interviews well. The board interviews him, he interviews well, half of getting the job is interviewing well.

I've got a new book coming out in late October, and it has a whole chapter on how to be a replacement CEO.

Stockerblog.com: What is the book called?

Fisher: The book is called the Ten Roads to Riches. It's the ten different ways people get mega-wealthy, and one of them is to be a replacement CEO. One of the things I talk about is how to become a replacement CEO, and a lot of firms hire replacement CEOs really badly, because the basic process that they use is, we hire a search firm, the search firm looks at candidates, we the board are told that pretty much any of them would be OK, yet we are always going to be skeptical of that, then we interview and then we seek some references. So we're going to get good references, since nobody is going to come forward that doesn't have good references and the real driving feature is who interviews well.

But interviewing well is a completely different skill than being a CEO. So you get a lot of people who become CEOs and move from job to job to job every three or four years, often to bigger more impressive places and they are really good corporate politicians and they are really good interviewers and they can't manage their way out and they can't strategize their way out of anything, and yet that doesn't stop them from getting hired. Its kind of a weakness in our society but there's not a better way to do it. Yet all the time, CEOs get elected who are just not very good, because they interview well. They're nice guys; they're not just great CEO's. They're not Jack Welch; they're not whoever you want to think of as a great CEO.

End of Part 6 of the Interview – Stay tuned for the next segment of the interview in the next several days, where Fisher discusses favorable sectors and much more.

Fisher obviously didn't provide any stock recommendations for the interview, but many of the stocks he has favored in the past can be found in his previous Forbes columns. For example, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBV), Enersis (ENI), Franklin Resources (BEN), and Anglo American (AAUK).

His book, <The Only Three Questions That Count: Investing by Knowing What Others Don't, which would make a great gift for any investor, is available at Amazon.

Author does not own any of the above mentioned stocks.

Interview by Fred Fuld at Stockerblog.com

Copyright 2008 Stockerblog.com, All rights reserved. Reprinting without permission is prohibited.
]]> http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/stockerblogcom-exclusive-interview-with-ken-fisher-%e2%80%93-part-6/feed/ 0 Stockerblog.com Exclusive: Interview with Ken Fisher – Part 5 http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/stockerblogcom-exclusive-interview-with-ken-fisher-%e2%80%93-part-5/ http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/stockerblogcom-exclusive-interview-with-ken-fisher-%e2%80%93-part-5/#comments Tue, 02 Sep 2008 19:00:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-5109481246604643409 Debt Laden Stocks versus Debt Free Stocks

Stockerblog.com had the pleasure of recently interviewing Ken Fisher, head of the $30 billion Fisher Asset Management, a very long time Forbes columnist, and author of the books Super Stocks, The Wall Street Waltz, 100 Minds That Made the Market, and The Only Three Questions That Count: Investing by Knowing What Others Don't.

He is also coming out with a new book in the Fall, The Ten Roads to Riches: The Way the Wealthy Got There (And How You Can Too!), published by Wiley.

If you missed Part 1 of the interview, you can see it here, and if you missed Part 2, you can see it here. Also check out Part 3 and Part 4.

Stockerblog.com: In your chapter, What Do I Believe that is Wrong, you had a nice list of myths which is pretty interesting, especially the High PE ratio myth, and you had a lot of statistics to back up all that. One of the myths, actually a couple of them, Government Deficits are Band and America has Too Much Debt, what about stocks that are heavily in debt, do you have any opinion on that.

Fisher: Franco Modigliani got a Nobel Prize for demonstrating there is no 'there' there. If you go back to Franco Modigliani's original work, it shows that as a class, that doesn't tell you anything. Individually, it may or may not; that is, a levered company that knows what the hell it's doing, that's doing something really nifty, it's obviously got a lot of upside and things are going to go well for it. The levered company that's badly run and doesn't have anything proprietary and getting its rear end chewed off by its competition, is going to go down the tubes, and its going to be nada, which itself doesn't tell you anything. I would refer people back to Modigliani's original work.

This goes back to my notion of screening, and leverage versus non-leverage, and see if you can get a different return dispersion, and the answer is, on a risk adjusted basis, no. Another way to say this is, if you did, is all you had to do to make money is buy the ones that aren't leveraged and short the ones that are leveraged, and you could generate alpha. The fact is that you can't.

That characteristic by itself means nothing, all it does is increases both the risk and the reward. Another way to say that is, if we had perfect knowledge, we would be rewarded by leveraging the hell out of ourselves. The problem is, we don't have perfect knowledge. This goes back again to the fundamental issue, if you know something other people don't know, and if you really know something other people don't know, the risk is going to work your way. And this is true whether you're investing in the stock or whether you're running an operating company.

Stockerblog.com: Do you think an average investor is better off not paying attention to many of the market commentators and analysts' opinions, and just do the research on the industries and the stocks themselves?

Fisher: Well, what I told you before, the average investor is just better off going passive, and going passive of course does imply not listening to any of these people. Let's put it another way, if you assume what I assume, and I think history is pretty clear on this, the average active investor lags the market, then the average active investor would be better to go passive because he can stay even with the market.

Now that isn't to say that there aren't things the active investor can do to become a better active investor. But a long time ago, I was called in to a pension plan, a municipal plan, to render to them advice on how they could go from being measured by some peer group they were being measured by, in the bottom 20% of all municipal plans, to doing better. My first response was, you've had all these managers you've hired, all you've got to do to be above average is to go passive. Because almost all these people are 100% active and they're all hurting themselves, so all they needed to be above the 50th percentile is to just be passive, because they are all lagging the market. That's a really hard concept for people to get.

Stockerblog.com: Well I know there are a lot of people out there, for example retirees, who have maybe $25 thousand up to a million dollars, and they just like to pick and choose their own stocks and do their own thing. So if you tell them they would be better off in an ETF or an index fund…

Fisher: They would lose the entertainment value, and I think that is a perfectly valid point. Then the question is, what price are you prepared to pay for entertainment. You can think of that as, I'm going to take my money and be passive and I'm going to take half the money I'm going to save from that and spend every third weekend in Las Vegas. It’s just a question of what you want to do with your time.

Sure there's a lot of people who will be active investors and there's a lot that active investors can do to improve themselves, and what that involves is self educating. So then you sit there and say well what are the things they don't know and those are the things they need to put time in self-educating on. And that can be from history to reading stock market books. It's unlikely to come much from the current opinions of commentators since the opinions of commentators tend to bounce all over the map, and an awful lot of it is just drivel. But, to a large extent, the way an active investor becomes a better active investor is work harder and educate yourself more.

End of Part 5 of the Interview – Stay tuned for future segments of the interview over the next several days, where Fisher discusses the importance of CEOs, favorable sectors and much more.

Fisher obviously didn't provide any stock recommendations for the interview, but many of the stocks he has favored in the past can be found in his previous Forbes columns. For example, CF Industries (CF), Merck (MRK), Veolia Environment (VE), and and Sara Lee Corp. (SLE).

His book, The Only Three Questions That Count: Investing by Knowing What Others Don't, which would make a great gift for any investor, is available at Amazon.

Author does not own any of the above mentioned stocks.

Interview by Fred Fuld at Stockerblog.com

Copyright 2008 Stockerblog.com, All rights reserved. Reprinting without permission is prohibited.
]]> http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/stockerblogcom-exclusive-interview-with-ken-fisher-%e2%80%93-part-5/feed/ 0 Top Stocks Going Ex Dividend Mid September http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/top-stocks-going-ex-dividend-mid-september/ http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/top-stocks-going-ex-dividend-mid-september/#comments Thu, 28 Aug 2008 05:41:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-1564527831584912087
If you are interested in buying dividends, there are several stocks in several different sectors and industries to choose from. Remember that you have to buy the stock before the ex-dividend date in order to be entitled to the dividend, and you can't sell the stock until after the ex date.

All of the following stocks have market caps over $500 million, PEs below 20, PEGs below 2, and yields over 2.5%.

Regions Financial Corporation (RF) Ex date: 9/15/2008 Yield: 4.9% PE: 6 PEG: 1.15 .

The Corporate Executive Board Company (EXBD) Ex date: 9/11/2008 Yield: 4.4% PE: 18 PEG: 1.39 .

United Bankshares, Inc. (UBSI) Ex date: 9/10/2008 Yield: 4.2% PE: 13 PEG: 1.62 .

National Financial Partners Corp. (NFP) Ex date: 9/12/2008 Yield: 4.1% PE: 15 PEG: 1.20 .

Bancolombia S.A. (CIB) Ex date: 9/17/2008 Yield: 3.7% PE: 9 PEG: 1.16 .

Shaw Communications Inc. (SJR) Ex date: 9/11/2008 Yield: 3.2% PE: 15 PEG: 0.87 .

Corus Entertainment Inc. (CJR) Ex date: 9/11/2008 Yield: 3.1% PE: 12 PEG: 0.89 .

Pacer International, Inc. (PACR) Ex date: 9/17/2008 Yield: 2.8% PE: 12 PEG: 0.93 .

Harleysville Group Inc. (HGIC) Ex date: 9/11/2008 Yield: 2.7% PE: 14 PEG: 1.70 .

The Black & Decker Corporation (BDK) Ex date: 9/10/2008 Yield: 2.6% PE: 9 PEG: 1.14 .

For more details on dividend definitions, check out definitions of dividend dates. If you like dividend stocks, you should check out the the High Yield Utility stocks and the Monthly Dividend Stocks at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Author does not own any of the above.

By Fred Fuld at Stockerblog.com
]]> http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/top-stocks-going-ex-dividend-mid-september/feed/ 0 Stockerblog.com Exclusive: Interview with Ken Fisher – Part 3 http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/stockerblogcom-exclusive-interview-with-ken-fisher-%e2%80%93-part-3/ http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/stockerblogcom-exclusive-interview-with-ken-fisher-%e2%80%93-part-3/#comments Thu, 28 Aug 2008 05:14:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-8755510486499469826 How Ken Fisher's Investing Style Differs from Jim Cramer, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffett

Stockerblog.com had the pleasure of recently interviewing Ken Fisher, head of the $30 billion Fisher Asset Management, a very long time Forbes columnist, and author of the books Super Stocks, The Wall Street Waltz, 100 Minds That Made the Market, and The Only Three Questions That Count: Investing by Knowing What Others Don't.

He is also coming out with a new book in the Fall, The Ten Roads to Riches: The Way the Wealthy Got There (And How You Can Too!), published by Wiley.

If you missed Part 1 of the interview, you can see it here, and if you missed Part 2, you can see it here.

Stockerblog.com: I noticed that Jim Cramer wrote a forward to your book, and I wanted to ask a Cramer versus Fisher question. I noticed that you have a couple major differences in investing techniques. One is Jim Cramer says you shouldn't have more than five stocks, you say that you shouldn't have more than five percent in a stock, which works out to 20 stocks minimum or I think you mentioned in your book up to 60 stocks if you own foreign stocks in your portfolio.

Fisher: I wouldn't mind owning hundreds. That's was you're trying to accomplish.

Stockerblog.com: Do you think for the average investor that that is still reasonable?

Fisher: Well let's think this through for a second. Anything I say is not meant to be a criticism of anything Jim Cramer says; but by definition, the average investor isn't very good, and therefore the average investor should probably just be passive. The average investor is going to do better if they're just passive than if they have stocks because one of the things we know is, in most of history, most active investors lag the market. So if you're an average investor that lags the market or you're worse than average you would improve your performance by going passive.

The requirement that I point out in my book, in finance theory and reality, to do better in the market, is to somehow know something that other people don't know. Now if you really do that, and if you really know a lot, and you're really confidant you know a lot, you concentrate that in a few stocks. The history of people who have done concentration has been very mixed, from person to person. It's not like the people who concentrate do better and the people who don't concentrate do worse or vice versa. That dilemma is in the knowing something.

So if you really know something - so lets' go in a different direction. Bill Gates didn't get to be Bill Gates by being diversified. So if you really know something, just go start a business. Just own one stock.

Warren Buffett is often thought of as an advocate of concentration. My father was an advocate of concentration. Now I want you to think about Warren Buffett correctly because there's only two ways to think about him. One, the guy who owns one stock, and that's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A), or two, the other way, what does Berkshire Hathaway own, a bunch of public stocks, and a bunch of private companies that he owns lock, stock , and barrel. He's actually got a very large number of companies, a lot more than five stocks, a lot more than ten stocks, a lot more than twenty stocks. So he's either diversified or he's one stock and not diversified at all. I'm not suggesting that either is good or bad.

My point is, it really comes down to the fact that the average investor is probably not going to do very well being an active investor. The average investor doesn't have the time. Now if you don't have much time, and you need to know something about what you're investing in that people don't know, you will end up with fewer things. On the other hand, if you buy five things that you don't know much about, your getting real random.

Let me go in a different direction. I run a lot of money. If I'm going to take a lot of money, and let's say put it into smaller stocks, that means I'm going to own more stocks. People never get these things the way I would have them get them. They would say 'Gee, at your size, you can't do small cap?' If you think about it, which most people don't, and if I was much bigger than I am, I could do negative market caps if I wanted to. Because you could by any stocks you want, and then you could put your cap above them or below them if you wanted to. It's real easy to create synthetic market caps and drive that into your portfolio by simply taking the stocks that you own and then you sell short a bigger cap index, and that will drive your cap down.
Technically in a portfolio engineering, and I don't think enough people think in terms of that engineering quality, it's not impossible at all, not that you necessarily want to, to put your market cap through the roof and to the floor synthetically.

Stockerblog.com: Do you do much or any shorting for your clients?

Fisher: Rarely, but will, to get the market cap where I want it to be when it's different from the stocks I own.


End of Part 3 of the Interview – Stay tuned for future segments of the interview over the next several days, where Fisher discusses stock market myths, favorable sectors and much more.

Fisher obviously didn't provide any stock recommendations for the interview, but many can be found in his Forbes column. For example, in the July 21 issue, he favored Dow Chemical (DOW), Rohm & Haas (ROH), Franklin Resources (BEN), Ball Corp. (BLL), and Merck (MRK).
His book, 100 Minds That Made the Market, which would make a great gift for any investor, is available at Amazon.

Author does not own any of the above mentioned stocks.

Interview by Fred Fuld at Stockerblog.com

Copyright 2008 Stockerblog.com, All rights reserved. Reprinting without permission is prohibited.
]]> http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/stockerblogcom-exclusive-interview-with-ken-fisher-%e2%80%93-part-3/feed/ 0 Stockerblog.com Exclusive: Interview with Ken Fisher – Part 2 http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/stockerblogcom-exclusive-interview-with-ken-fisher-%e2%80%93-part-2/ http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/stockerblogcom-exclusive-interview-with-ken-fisher-%e2%80%93-part-2/#comments Tue, 26 Aug 2008 22:50:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-4331386274006518406 What We Can Learn from Financial History

Stockerblog.com had the pleasure of recently interviewing Ken Fisher, head of the $30 billion Fisher Asset Management, a very long time Forbes columnist, and author of the books Super Stocks, The Wall Street Waltz, 100 Minds That Made the Market, and The Only Three Questions That Count: Investing by Knowing What Others Don't.

He is also coming out with a new book in the Fall, The Ten Roads to Riches: The Way the Wealthy Got There (And How You Can Too!), published by Wiley.

If you missed part one of the interview, you can see it here.

Stockerblog.com: Why don't we jump to your 100 Minds that made the Market book, which I really enjoyed. Do you have two or three favorites out of the one hundred?

Fisher: Not particularly, it all depends on what mood I'm in at a point in time.

Stockerblog.com: I noticed that one of the themes that caught my eye when going through all the individuals in the book is who escaped and who didn't escape the crash of 1929. Do you think there are any trading lessons that can be learned from their backgrounds?

Fisher: I think it's hard to draw general conclusions like that. You can view that in several different ways, and in the past, I have. One is that people who think against the crowd have always had an advantage. The other is, and I wrote about this in another one of my books, The Wall Street Waltz, Americans who paid attention to what was going on overseas tended to have a tremendous advantage over those who didn't, because overseas started going down long before we did in America. It's completely true today that there is still even more so than ever an advantage in thinking globally first and America second. And that would have been particularly useful to people. Then there's the Joe Kennedy mentality that when shoe shiners, barbers, and beauticians can tell you how to get rich, you have to remember there's no free lunch.

Those are probably the two main lessons. Another one of the points I make in the Wall Street Waltz, is that counter to common mythology, valuations were not terribly high in 1929. That is, somebody would like to believe that the PE was sky high and people ignored it. The PE was actually middling. It was neither particularly high nor particularly low. Profit margins were very fat. The fat profit margins were the euphoria, not the level of the valuations relative to the earnings, the presumption that the earnings would be maintained forever.

Stockerblog.com: Do you think there's much interest these days in financial history, by investors or people in general?

Fisher: Not much, no. I think the interest in financial history has waned in that my parents' generation had this infatuation that linked back before World War II; and today, most people act as if the world started when World War II ended. There's a presumption, which has a little bit of validity but not a lot of validity, everything is so different that history isn’t terribly important. There's a little bit of that.

For example, when you do a long term data study, invariably the further you go back, the dirtier the data are. The notion of good old data is an oxymoron. There's old data, there's good data, but there's not good old data. One of the dilemmas about thinking of financial history is there's an awful lot of grays, as opposed to blacks and whites, you need a lot of history to interpret those grays. Most people don't have the desire to have that much history.

Stockerblog.com: Do you think financial history should be taught in colleges, more than just teaching Keynesian theory and that type of thing, more about the people who were involved in Wall Street.

Fisher: When I was a kid, history business cycles was a mandated class, and basic undergraduate economics, at most universities. That's no longer true today. In my mind, but nobody's asking me, other than you, but if it were up to me, I would change an awful lot of the college curriculum. A lot of the college curriculum is screwy. I would make it very different than it is, but the educators of the world aren't asking me for my opinion on that subject.

I would have a requirement for a lot more history in most majors. I don't think they teach nearly enough history across the board. I have a lot of young people that work at my firm, and one of the things that they actually marvel at is, the ones who are in the 35 year old range, how in their lifetime, they saw education change: getting softer and fuzzier and the theme that everybody gets a ribbon, everybody gets a prize, you didn't fail. That's a whole different topic but education, starting with when I was young, with the Vietnamese War, has become softer, and softer, and softer.

End of Part 2 of the Interview – Stay tuned for future segments of the interview over the next several days, where Fisher discusses how his investing technique differs from Jim Cramer, stock market myths, favorable sectors and much more.

Fisher obviously didn't provide any stock recommendations for the interview, but many can be found in his Forbes column. For example, in the June 16 issue, he favored Enersis (ENI), Veolia Environment (VE), General Electric (GE), Nokia (NOK), and Intel (INTC).
His book, 100 Minds That Made the Market, which would make a great gift for any investor, is available at Amazon.

Author does not own any of the above mentioned stocks.

Interview by Fred Fuld at Stockerblog.com

Copyright 2008 Stockerblog.com, All rights reserved. Reprinting without permission is prohibited.
]]> http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/stockerblogcom-exclusive-interview-with-ken-fisher-%e2%80%93-part-2/feed/ 0 Stockerblog.com Exclusive: Interview with Ken Fisher – Part 1 http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/stockerblogcom-exclusive-interview-with-ken-fisher-%e2%80%93-part-1/ http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/stockerblogcom-exclusive-interview-with-ken-fisher-%e2%80%93-part-1/#comments Sun, 24 Aug 2008 06:45:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-6847169386429024466 The Price Sales Ratio

Stockerblog.com had the pleasure of recently interviewing Ken Fisher, head of the $30 billion Fisher Asset Management, a very long time Forbes columnist, and author of the books Super Stocks, The Wall Street Waltz, 100 Minds That Made the Market, and The Only Three Questions That Count: Investing by Knowing What Others Don't.

He is also coming out with a new book in the Fall, The Ten Roads to Riches: The Way the Wealthy Got There (And How You Can Too!), published by Wiley.

Stockerblog.com: Talking a little about the Price to Sales Ratio, which you discussed extensively in your Super Stocks book, and mentioned in your latest book, Only Three Questions That Count , that it isn't as useful, how did you happen to find and utilize that ratio to begin with?

Fisher: In a world a long time ago, long before there was wide access to computing, I used to try to look at companies that were hemorrhaging badly that had everyone scared to death of them and losing lots of money. I would, in those days, go looking through the Wall Street Journal, looking at was then a very broad display of earnings reports, showing company revenue and profit or loss per share. So I would look for companies with huge losses and then I would sort around among them and then I would look at ones that had low market values in relations to sales, as a way to see upside leverage, to see if they could turn their operating loss condition around.

The fundamental question was, if the company is losing money, if it made X profit margin, what would its P/E be today, and that kind of led me to the price sales ratio as a way to normalize that. It was all in a world where any form of screening was difficult to do whereas today most forms of screening are quite trivial to do.

Stockerblog.com: Now I know you say that the PE ratio is no longer an indicator for undervalued stocks …

Fisher: I didn't say that. I said it's not nearly what it once was. I didn't suggest that there is no utility to it; in fact, in my Forbes column, I'll say company X sells at a PE of X and Y times revenue and Z yield as a way to get perspectives on the same issue.

That realm of the profitless company, 30 years ago was no man's land, and there was tremendous inefficiency there. In a world where most paid attention to PE and where, by then, the ravages of inflation had already made prices to book hard to compare company A to company B because inflation distorts book value, the price sales ratio appeared to be a current way to get a sense of how big is the stock compared to how big is the company, and that you could extrapolate from that in the future, profit margin Y, what the PE would be.

Stockerblog.com: Do you think the PS can still be used today to compare companies within an industry or within a sector?

Fisher: It's not as useful as it once was because , one, screening is so easy, that there is less value from screening as there once was and, two, the price sales ratio today is a well known concept, so because it's a well known concept, people use it so it has less value then that which is unknown.

Stockerblog.com: So it's built into the market now.

Fisher: I wouldn't say completely, because, it's still true, and it's verified by all kinds of behavioral studies, there tends to be a natural behavioral tendency for people to overreact to problems as well as overreact to successes. So when a company is losing money, and hemorrhaging badly, people tend to be overly scared away from it. So there's still something there but not as much as there once was.

End of Part 1 of the Interview – Stay tuned for future segments of the interview over the next several days, where Fisher discusses his thoughts on education, how his investing technique differs from Jim Cramer, stock market myths, favorable sectors and much more.

Fisher obviously didn't provide any stock recommendations for the interview, but many can be found in his Forbes column. For example, in the May 19 issue, he favored Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBV), with a PE of 7, a PS of 1.87, and a PEG of 0.42; Novartis AG (NVS) with a PE of 10, a PS of 3.06, and a PEG of 2.17; Royal Dutch Shell plc (RDS-A) (RDS-B), with a PE of 6, a PS of 0.49; and Sara Lee Corp. (SLE) with a forward PE of 12, a PS of 0.73, and a PEG of 2.

His latest book, Only Three Questions That Count, is available at Amazon. You can also check out the review of the book .

Author does not own any of the above mentioned stocks.

Interview by Fred Fuld at Stockerblog.com

Copyright 2008 Stockerblog.com, All rights reserved. Reprinting without permission is prohibited.
]]> http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/stockerblogcom-exclusive-interview-with-ken-fisher-%e2%80%93-part-1/feed/ 0 Top High Priced Share Stocks http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/top-high-priced-share-stocks/ http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/top-high-priced-share-stocks/#comments Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:45:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-3828020332071013987 Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK-A), that sell for over $100 a share.

Here are some stocks, all trading in excess of $100 a share, that have P/E ratios less than 20, PEG ratios less than 1, market caps above $15 billion, and all but one pay a dividend.

Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (GS) the large investment banking firm, has the highest priced shares on the list at about $154 per share. The stock has a P/E of 8 , a PEG of 0.43 and pays a yield of 0.9% .

CNOOC Limited (ADR) (CEO) is the explorer and producer of crude oil and natural gas off the coast of China which sell for around $143 per share. The stock has a P/E of 15 , a PEG of 0.40 and pays a yield of 3.3% .

Transocean Inc. (RIG) provides offshore contract oil and gas drilling services. It sells for about $133 per share. The stock has a P/E of 8 , a PEG of 0.28 .

Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. (DO) is another offshore oil and gas drilling contractor including deepwater drilling. $114 per share. The stock has a P/E of 14 , a PEG of 0.71 and pays a yield of 0.5% .

Siemens AG (ADR) (SI) is the huge German electronics and electrical engineering conglomerate. It sells for roughly $110 per share. The stock has a P/E of 17 , a PEG of 0.96 and pays a yield of 1.7% .

Hess Corp. (HES) is a developer and producer of oil and natural gas. It sells for about $109 per share. The stock has a P/E of 13 , a PEG of 0.62 and pays a yield of 0.4% .

Continental AG (CTTAY) is a German auto parts maker. It sells for approximately $103 per share. The stock has a P/E of 15 , a PEG of 0.97 and pays a yield of 2.91% .

To see a list of really high priced shares, go to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Author does not own any of the above.

By Fred Fuld at Stockerblog.com
]]> http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/top-high-priced-share-stocks/feed/ 0 Top 14 Stocks Going Ex Dividend Early September http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/top-14-stocks-going-ex-dividend-early-september/ http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/top-14-stocks-going-ex-dividend-early-september/#comments Tue, 19 Aug 2008 06:22:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-5525390771708412473 buying dividends, there are lots of stocks in several different sectors and industries to choose from. Keep in mind that you have to buy the stock before the ex-dividend date in order to be entitled to the dividend, and you can't sell the stock until after the ex date.

Buying dividends is the technique of buying stocks before the ex date and selling shortly after the ex date at roughly the same price, yet being entitled to the dividend. This generally works only in bull markets.

All of the following stocks have market caps over $500 million, PEs below 20, PEGs below 2, and yields over 2%.

ArcelorMittal (MT) Ex-div date: 9/2/2008 Yield: 2.0% PE: 8 PEG: 0.46

Cohen & Steers, Inc. (CNS) Ex-div date: 9/3/2008 Yield: 3.1% PE: 19 PEG: 1.62

Kimberly-Clark Corporation (KMB) Ex-div date: 9/3/2008 Yield: 3.7% PE: 15 PEG: 1.97

The Pepsi Bottling Group, Inc. (PBG) Ex-div date: 9/3/2008 Yield: 2.2% PE: 13 PEG: 1.42

PepsiCo, Inc. (PEP) Ex-div date: 9/3/2008 Yield: 2.4% PE: 20 PEG: 1.78

Sealed Air Corp. (SEE) Ex-div date: 9/3/2008 Yield: 2.0% PE: 16 PEG: 1.45

The Stanley Works (SWK) Ex-div date: 9/3/2008 Yield: 2.6% PE: 12 PEG: 1.07

V.F. Corporation (VFC) Ex-div date: 9/5/2008 Yield: 3.0% PE: 14 PEG: 1.32

Ameren Corporation (AEE) Ex-div date: 9/8/2008 Yield: 6.1% PE: 13 PEG: 1.86

Constellation Energy Group, Inc. (CEG) Ex-div date: 9/8/2008 Yield: 3.0% PE: 14 PEG: 1.16

Pepco Holdings, Inc. (POM) Ex-div date: 9/8/2008 Yield: 4.4% PE: 14 PEG: 1.39

Reynolds American, Inc. (RAI) Ex-div date: 9/8/2008 Yield: 6.0% PE: 11 PEG: 1.58

The Travelers Companies, Inc. (TRV) Ex-div date: 9/8/2008 Yield: 2.7% PE: 7 PEG: 0.85

TELUS Corporation (TU) Ex-div date: 9/8/2008 Yield: 5.0% PE: 9 PEG: 0.63

For more details on dividend definitions, check out definitions of dividend dates.

Author owns PEP.

By Fred Fuld at Stockerblog.com
]]> http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/top-14-stocks-going-ex-dividend-early-september/feed/ 0 Supermodels Outperform the Dow http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/supermodels-outperform-the-dow/ http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/supermodels-outperform-the-dow/#comments Mon, 18 Aug 2008 04:23:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-8989760695788651217
Three top celebrities, Gisele Bündchen, Heidi Klum, and Angelina Jolie, all of which had celebrity stock indexes created by Fred Fuld at Stockerblog.com and implemented a Stockpickr.com, have had their indexes updated and compared to the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The one thing that these three women have in common, other than the fact that they are wealthy, successful celebrities [two supermodels and one movie star who was also a model], is that all three of their indexes have outperformed the Dow over the last six months.

Their indexes are based on the companies that they are connected to in some way, such as acting as celebrity spokesperson. Over the last six months, Gisele Bündchen's index was up 1.6%, Heidi Klum's index was down only 0.7%, and Angelina Jolie's index was down 10%, yet all were better than the Dow which was down 10.3%. Their portfolios are as follows:

Gisele Bundchen
Volkswagon (VLKAY.PK)
Polo Ralph Lauren Corp. (RL)
Vivo Participacoes (VIV)
News Corp. (NWS-A)
Sony (SNE)
Procter & Gamble (PG)
Disney (DIS)

Heidi Klum
Limited (LTD)
McDonalds (MCD)
Volkswagon (VLKAY.PK)
Target (TGT)
Procter & Gamble (PG)
Nike (NKE)
Jones Apparel Group Inc. (JNY)
Hennes & Mauritz AB (HNNMY.PK)

Angelina Jolie
Sony (SNE)
Viacom (VIA-B)
Time Warner (TWX)
News Corp. (NWS-A)
General Electric (GE)
Disney (DIS)
Lions Gate Entertainment (LGF)
Comcast (CMCSA)

Assumptions:
These are price-weighted indexes, similar to the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Dividends were included.

Check out additional details on Gisele Bundchen, Heidi Klum, and Angelina Jolie.

Author owns DIS, MCD, and TWX.

By Fred Fuld at Stockerblog.com
]]> http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/supermodels-outperform-the-dow/feed/ 0 Stocks in Oregon? http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/stocks-in-oregon/ http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/stocks-in-oregon/#comments Mon, 18 Aug 2008 02:51:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-1079432094216336974
When you think of Oregon, you don't normally think of the stock market. However, Portland is the home of a couple of well known Fortune 500 companies. Here are some interesting facts about Oregon:

1. Oregon has no sales tax.
2. It produces 95% of the domestic hazelnuts in the United States.
3. It is the third largest producer of wine in the U.S. with 303 wineries.
4. It is the largest producer of softwood lumber in the U.S.
5. It has one of the largest salmon-fishing industries in the world.
7. Portland has the largest number of breweries of any city in the world.
7. Oregon has the 27th largest Gross State Product in the U.S.
8. Oregon is one of six states with a revenue limit.
9. 55% of state revenues are spent on public education.
10. Last year, Moodys increased Oregon's general obligation bond ratings to Aa2 from Aa3.

The following are stocks of companies that are headquartered in Oregon with market caps above $1 billion.

Nike Inc CL B ( NKE ) designs, manufactures, and sells footwear, apparel, equipment, and other related products. The stock has a PE of 17 , a PEG of 1.16 , and pays a yield of 1.5% .

Precision Castparts Corp ( PCP ) makes and markets metal components in the US and the UK. The stock has a PE of 13 , a PEG of 0.68 , and pays a yield of 0.1% .

Flir Systems Inc ( FLIR ) makes and sells thermal imaging and infrared camera systems. The stock has a PE of 37 , a PEG of 1.49 .

Stancorp Financial Group Inc ( SFG ) is a provider of group insurance products including life and disability insurance. The stock has a PE of 11 , a PEG of 0.93 , and pays a yield of 1.4% .

Schnitzer Steel Industries Inc ( SCHN ) is in the business of recycling ferrous and nonferrous metals, and used and salvaged vehicles. The stock has a PE of 12 , a PEG of 0.69 , and pays a yield of 0.1% .

Porland General Electrical Co ( POR ) is an electric utility which serves the state of Oregon. The stock has a PE of 13 , a PEG of 2.08 , and pays a yield of 3.9% .

Columbia Sportswear ( COLM ) designs and sells outdoor apparel. The stock has a PE of 11 , a PEG of 1.57 , and pays a yield of 1.6% .

Mentor Graphics Corp. ( MENT ) produces software and hardware design products for electronic design automation. The stock has a PE of 1268 , a PEG of 0.91 .

Northwest Natural Gas Co. ( NWN ) is a distributor of natural gas in Oregon and southwest Washington. The stock has a PE of 18 , a PEG of 3.55 , and pays a yield of 3.3% .

Fei Co. ( FEIC ) provides instruments for nanoscale imaging, analysis, and prototyping. The stock has a PE of 28 , a PEG of 2.8 .

For stocks from other states, check out Hawaii stocks, Alaska stocks and Puerto Rico stocks.

Author does not own any of the above.

By Fred Fuld at Stockerblog.com
]]> http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/stocks-in-oregon/feed/ 0 Utilities With Heavy Oil and Gas Exposure http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/utilities-with-heavy-oil-and-gas-exposure/ http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/utilities-with-heavy-oil-and-gas-exposure/#comments Sun, 17 Aug 2008 06:59:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-2551973399362230724
Pinnacle West Capital Corp. (PNW) has one of the heaviest exposures, with 24% of their electric energy coming from oil and natural gas. About 35% comes from coal and 21.5% from nuclear. This Phoenix, Arizona based company has a PE of 10, a PEG of 3.55 and a yield of 6%.

Westar Energy Inc. (WR) generates about 34% of its energy from natural gas, with 56% from coal and 9% from nuclear. This utility which serves Kansas has a PE of 13, a PEG of 3.28 and a yield of 5%.

Entergy Corp. (ETR) has about 18% of its fuel sources coming from oil and natural gas. 12% is from coal and 33% from nuclear, with the rest purchased. Entergy serves Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas, and Louisiana, including the City of New Orleans, where it is based. The stock has a PE of 16, a PEG of 1.19 and a yield of 3%.

OGE Energy Corp. (OGE) has 29% of its energy coming from natural gas, with 51% from coal. They serve the south central United States. The stock has a PE of 13, a PEG of 3.15 and a yield of 4.2%.

Alliant Energy Corp. (LNT) has 28% of its electricity generated from natural gas and 6% from oil. The company serves Iowa and southern Minnesota. The stock has a PE of 9, a PEG of 2.45 and a yield of 4.1%.

Cleco Corp. (CNL), another Louisiana based company, with 14% exposure to natural gas. The stock has a PE of 12, a PEG of 1.09 and a yield of 3.5%.

If you like utility stocks, you should take a look at Highest Yielding Electric Utilities and Highest Yielding Natural Gas Utilities. You can also find an Excel database of utility stocks, which you can download, add to and sort, at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com

Author does not own any of the above.

By Fred Fuld at Stockerblog.com
]]> http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/utilities-with-heavy-oil-and-gas-exposure/feed/ 0 Olympic Stocks http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/olympic-stocks/ http://www.straightstocks.com/current-market-news/olympic-stocks/#comments Tue, 12 Aug 2008 02:55:00 +0000 Fred Fuld tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23020893.post-192051519157207863
Coca Cola (KO) is the famous beverage company. The stock has a PE of 22 , a PEG of 1.9 and pays a yield of 2.70% .

General Electric (GE) the conglomerate involved in technology, media, and financial services. The stock has a PE of 14 , a PEG of 1.22 and pays a yield of 4.20% .

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) famous for its Bandaids, makes and markets various health care products. The stock has a PE of 17 , a PEG of 1.98 and pays a yield of 2.60% .

Kodak (EK) makes and sells photography and digital imaging products. The stock has a PE of 8 , a PEG of 9.59 and pays a yield of 3% .

Lenovo Group (LNVGY.PK) makes and sells technology products and services. The stock has a PE of 13 and pays a yield of 4.70% .

Manulife (MFC) is a life, group life and health insurance company. The stock has a PE of 14 , a PEG of 0.96 and pays a yield of 2.80% .

McDonalds (MCD) is the operator of McDonalds fast food restaurants. The stock has a PE of 17 , a PEG of 1.57 and pays a yield of 2.30% .

Visa (V) is the credit card processing company. The stock has a PE of 27 , a PEG of 1.42 and pays a yield of 0.60% .

If you want an Excel database of all the publicly traded Worldwide Olympic Sponsors, along with the Sponsors, Exclusive Suppliers, and Beijing 2008 Partners, a total of 18 stocks, go to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Author owns KO, MCD, and V.

By Fred Fuld at Stockerblog.com
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