Out Goes Gold Fields, In Comes Tata

As to witching days, the SEC might want to check the unfair advantage that Humongous Bank & Broker has over the rest of us. I suspect the SEC investigators could find some funny business going on when the US equity market closed at 4pm ET Friday, but HB&B trades in the after-market and then closes their options market at noon Saturday.

If they need some help, why not check out Exxon (XOM) and Chevron (CVX) share prices and options trading near the close.

What a set-up for improper actions by HB&B. And you know; where there is a will (and there is!), HB&B will always find a way to screw over the client, which is why the performance of the average mutual fund, hedge fund and average institutional and retail account always trails that of the broad market indexes and the HB&B prop trading desks.

The important order of business now is for me to change the composition of the Cara 100. I will be removing a (gasp!) gold producer in exchange for a (gasp!) auto manufacturer. That’s right, cars for gold. “Kaimu” will have a heart attack.

But really, what I’m doing is some long-term planning, switching the troublesome infrastructure/divestment issues of the Republic of South Africa for the rapid growth and entrepreneurial brilliance of India. I am no longer interested in South Africa as a place to invest. So out goes Gold Fields (GFI) and in comes Tata (TTM).

As you know the Cara 100 is a list of companies that I monitor for possible trading purposes. I like their quality, i.e., financial strength, superior operating metrics, sound management, macro-economic factors and the like.

I won’t go into the Tata switch too much as today is my day off (smiley goes here), but suffice it for me to say that Tata is raising eyebrows among international investors with (i) the Landrover-Jaguar deal, (ii) then the world's cheapest car, and (iii) its latest plan to introduce a car that runs on compressed air. As Tata powers forward, the Big Three of Detroit are going in reverse.

So, ta-ta everyone. Enjoy your weekend.

Comments

[CLH:]

Sounds good to me. India is in the tank and SA is all gold which leaves me cold after an 8 year run.

2008 Jul 20 08:16 AM

[notsosmart:]

so its ta ta to us autos.

2008 Jul 20 09:37 AM

[VintonCounty:]

Powering a car with compressed air is impractical, as any competent mechanical engineer can deduce. If Tata is serious about that concept, they don't listen to their engineers.

2008 Jul 20 09:46 AM

[Willy@post:]

I am out the smartest person alive, if TATA believes air can power a car then lets go for it. They have proved their point os far.

2008 Jul 20 10:12 AM

[erniem:]

compressed air? Well the way that works is fairly simple. GIGO. Garbage in, Garbage out. Or in this case, energy in, energy out. It takes a certain amount of energy to move a car, whether that energy is derived from gas, NG, coal powered electricity or compressed air. In any case, ENERGY is needed.

2008 Jul 20 10:23 AM

[andyn:]

The Nano - the cheapest car - goes on sale end of this year in India. Already demand is HUGE at the dealers. The stock has been beaten down like crazy so far this year. My advice is to buy Jan 2009 calls in anticipation of the obvious media frenzy and pop that is going to happen in Dec.

2008 Jul 20 10:33 AM

[Prashanth:]

Check this,
www.businessweek.com/a...

and these

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Cheers

2008 Jul 20 11:56 AM

[Clavis:]

A significant step towards cleaner brown coal power.
Clean coal technology company Exergen Pty Ltd has attracted investments, from Australian engineering services company Sedgman Limited and Tata Power.
“This technology has some very exciting applications, particularly within the electricity generation industry, where the process has the potential to cut carbon emissions by up to 40 per cent when combined with new-technology power generation plants.”

2008 Jul 20 02:45 PM

[fxtrader07:]

GFI is not so much south african anymore. Actually, due to the probs in SA and the stock's dive in response to them, you get the south africa operations of gfo for free(!) at these prices - paying just moderately-fair for their gold mining portfolio in other parts of the world. GFI is a doubler from here, even if gold were to fall to 840$/oz. On the other hand, auto makers are terrinle longterm investments. i won't touch them- too easy to screw up for any of them...

2008 Jul 21 04:30 AM

[samadams:]

you're selling GFI at exactly the wrong time-look for it to hit mid 20s early next year as they get their arms around the ectlectrical generation problems --very undervalued amongst gold miners

2008 Jul 22 06:57 AM

[iman:]

Good move dumping GFI it will be good when power is restored but who know when that will be. Should stick with gold though should have bought AUY or AEM

2008 Jul 23 01:03 PM