Kevin Berk

Cisco: Plotting the Next Big Acquisition

JCOM might be a potential target too.

Distressing Details of the UltraShorts

Did you account for dividends? If you take into account dividend DUG was up 18% last year ($8.20 was distributed throughout the year). Not quite what you would want - since the underlying index was down 40%.

D-Day for the MacroShares Crude Oil ETFs

The reason DCR is trading above NAV even after "D-Day" is that it is basically a put option on NYMEX light sweet crude since you can't lose more than you put into DCR. If you do some quick math you will realize that DCR value equals the same percentage of the effective strike price ($120) as a July Put option with $96 strike price ($96 is likely where USO would trade if crude hit $120). July 96's is ~$9.30 = 9.7% of 96. 9.7% of 120 is 11.63. Divide that by 3 and voila = $3.88. DCR closed at $3.76. It is likely lower since it expires on June 25th instead of July 19. In fact it is a pretty decent alternative to a put since the liquidity has been pretty high.

Google's AdSense For Domains Program (GOOG, YHOO)

Some of the traffic generated by domainers like Marchex is relevant, but sometimes they are generated by search engine spamming or irrelevant traffic arbitrage. The domains business can create incentives for domainers to push the envelope. You can see my posts about what Marchex has been doing on my blog:

berk.typepad.com/bshaw...

berk.typepad.com/bshaw...

Disclosure: I own puts on MCHX