Ken Bell

Oils Well That Ends Well

Shaggie! Nice catch. That was a typo. That's $1075 per gallon for my Starbucks. If it were $1075 per gallon, I'd be too busy running my coffee store to write!

New Home Sales: Revising Their Way Higher

Wow. Cooter! Why the hostility? Did someone's ARM just reset? Just kidding. Ok. I reread the article, and it seems the "problem" is that I used the term "housing"" instead of real estate" when mentioning SRS and XHB. Fair enough. That could have been clearer. The focus of the article was on the housing part of real estate, but I wanted to share that I was also long SRS. To clarify, I'm bearish on both residential and commercial real estate, so I have exposure to both.

RIM CEO Firmly Optimistic About Future Growth

RIMM is a great short. It's ridiculously overvalued, and the competition is only heating up.

Will LDK Solar Repeat the Successes of Standard Oil?

You're rapidly losing credibility. Trying to compare LDK to Standard Oil is borderline obscene. I understand that you're long, have taken a bad hit and want/hope the stock will rebound, but I'd strongly advise you to look at this situation a bit more objectively. How about for your next essay you actually play devil's advocate and try and look at this from the short side? Could be instructive.

LDK Solar: The Soap Opera Continues

Interesting article. You slam the press for spinning the story in the most negative light, but you seem to be spinning it in the most favorable light. The truth is, of course, most likely somewhere in the middle. From my experience in the industry (inst. invest) it definitely appears to me that the company took a very aggressive approach to its inventory accounting. At best, they exercised poor judgment in this and there are no other issues. At worst, this is an example of the cockroach theory - where there's one there are others. The fact that the stock has traded down sharply isn't completely irrational. Many times there are other shoes to drop. If the company is being this aggressive with its inventory accounting, it is quite logical to question just how aggressive it may be in other areas. Should the stock rebound, this issue be put to rest and no other issues surface, then of course you and other bulls will look back and claim that irrationality and hysteria. However, if there should be other shoes to drop and the stock fall to new lows, then the recent stock action won't look so silly. This is what makes markets. The key point is that the recent stock action, while volatile and with exceptionally heavy volume, is not clearly irrational or hysterical. Time will tell.

Local.com: More Matter, With Less (Prior) Art

Terrific write-up Marty. It's nice to see someone address this. Thanks for your insight.