As I begin this, Vonage (VG) is trading at over $2.40 in the aftermarket.

Vonage was trading below $.40 just five days ago.

Barron's wrote about First Solar's (FSLR) weaknesses and competitive threats this past weekend (Reuters coverage of Barron's commentary here), and an analyst, FBR Capital Markets, followed up Barron's with a downgrade on Tuesday morning.

The FBR analyst, who slapped an "underperform" rating on FSLR, mused that

I have enjoyed writing about the Kindle and Amazon.com (AMZN) on multiple occasions over the past few weeks, so I decided that I'd try to bring everything together in one last post on this topic.

Both the Kindle 2 and the Kindle DX are attractive devices that perform niche functions spectacularly. If you're into reading books, both devices can make that hobby better. The Kindles have the ability to carry an entire library of books everywhere, and the ability to add to that library instantaneously from anywhere courtesy of a Spring-powered network. The e-ink in the reader is easy on the eyes, allowing for extended reading without the eyestrain that often comes from extended reading of an LCD screen.

Though I myself didn't short shares of Amazon.com (AMZN) despite all of my recent negatively-slanted pieces, I am glad to report that shares are sitting lower than they were on every date that I published anything about them.

AMZN's recent decline can be attributed to the general market pullback, but looking forward, shares may continue to underperform. Below is a six month chart of AMZN [click to enlarge]:

Today, E*Trade (ETFC) released its monthly customer statistics, and the statistics were pleasantly surprising.

The full run-down of statistics can be found here, but I'll summarize some important stuff below:

How's this for a nice throwback - Short Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG).

On my blog, I have written plenty about CMG's ridiculous valuation in late 2007 and early 2008. I was never actually able to short CMG shares, as I could never find any available, but that was ok - my initial call on October 31, 2007 was a bit early, and I would have probably covered as shares rose from $130 to $150. However, my thesis was eventually vindicated as shares fell from $150 to about $40 over the course of 2008.

Amazon (AMZN) is holding a press conference at a New York university today (Wednesday) to probably announce what many optimistic investors had been waiting for: a Kindle with a bigger screen.

Much of the reason for the press conference seems lost as the important info has been leaking out over the past few days. Engadget, a popular electronics blog, published this post about the new Kindle, including leaked pictures.

My portfolio is made up of plenty of high-beta stocks with questionable futures - I am proud to hold 1000+ shares of ETFC. Other winners (note to reader: that's typed sarcastically) include AIG. Rounding out some other holdings are Penn Gaming (PENN) and US Steel (X).

To hedge this exposure and to attempt to profit off of a market correction that I believe is overdue, I just purchased some shares of BGZ, one of Direxion's 3x ETFs. BGZ is 3x bear Large-Caps, so I expect it to more closely track the indexes (S&P 500/Nasdaq) than any of their other highly-leveraged instruments.

Monday morning, I wrote about huge daily declines in share prices of companies that have exposure to any business that may be adversely affected by the swine flu (or simply a reluctance to travel/go out because of fear of it). Shares of such companies continued to fall throughout the day:

• Carnival Corp. (CCL), -13.5%
• Royal Caribbean (RCL), -16.3%
• Southwest Airlines (LUV), - 9.4%
• US Airways (LCC), -17.4%
• Smithfield Foods (SFD), -12.4%

All five companies mentioned saw a slight rebound in aftermarket trading (generally 1-2%), suggesting that investors were ready to expose themselves to some risk.

As the world is freaking out about a possible swine flu pandemic, travel related stocks are being sold off. The damage that swine flu will inflict on airlines and cruise companies is likely (much) more psychological than tangible, but I would still avoid buying any travel-related stocks until this swine flu hype (hopefully) blows over.

For example, Carnival Cruise Lines (CCL) shares are down 10% as of 10 AM Monday, and its main competitor, Royal Carribean (RCL) is down 15%. Airlines are taking a beating too - Southwest (LUV) is down about 9%, while US Air (LCC), which was also downgraded by UBS this (Monday) morning, is trading down 15%. Here is a little article on MarketWatch showing the price declines of airline stocks.

Amazon.com (AMZN) began as an internet book retailer and has expanded into sales of goods of all kinds. A consumer can now buy everything from groceries to the latest G-Unit CD on Amazon. Amazon's product offerings only continue to grow as they add more products to their site directly and invite outside sellers to sell through the Amazon portal. Amazon has even begun developing and selling its own products: the recently-introduced Kindle 2 created much buzz and will fluff Amazon's bottom line as they are the sole retailer of the high-margin product:

A teardown analysis of the Kindle 2 by market research firm iSuppli estimates the cost to build the device at $185.49, or about 52% of its retail price of $359. - (Businessweek)

Amazon.com (AMZN) will likely take some heat today as it has become known that they apparently have been systematically "hiding" books deemed to be about non-heterosexual topics by changing classifications and making them ineligible for their ranking systems.

A reasonably-thorough article is available here, but expect more news on this tomorrow as the mainstream media picks up this story.

Once-proud financial-service companies have been humbled, and currently trade at lowly prices usually reserved for unknown, unremarkable companies.

Citi (C) ended at $2.31 at Monday's close. American International Group (AIG) closed below a dollar. Both stocks are up roughly 250% off of all-time lows, but the future of the shares (and companies) are hazy at best. Risk-averse investors don't necessarily want to gamble on such risky companies, especially while daily price fluctuations are so extreme. At the same time, however, bullish investors may want to be exposed to potential upside in shares of such trampled companies.

Since I wrote about E*Trade (ETFC) last week, shares have crept up from $.66 to $1 (in pre-market action this morning; last night's close was $.91).

The Wall Street Journal put out a little article this (Tuesday) morning discussing a few monthly updates that ETFC released today. The article may (or may not, depending on if it's subscription-based) be seen here.

Though I'm currently being taught that many scholars and businesspeople believe that stock market prices represent the entirety of all available information, I disagree. I see the stock market as a much less rational creature; along with true facts and information, fear, emotion, rumors, and expectations share responsibility for driving prices and creating price swings.

The major markets (S&P 500, Dow, NASDAQ, and most international markets too) have endured wild fluctuations over the past year and a half as they shed 50% of their value. Below is a chart of the S&P 500 over just the past six months, after the index had already lost a significant portion of its value.

E*Trade (ETFC) shares have suffered one of the greatest declines of all (non-bankrupt) financial service companies - a whopping 97% from pre-meltdown levels. (From the start of 2006 through the first half of 2007, ETFC was a $20+ stock.)

The verdict remains out on ETFC. Obviously the possibility (or probability?) of bankruptcy is priced in, as shares changed hands at $.66 on Thursday. However, the core brokerage business remains strong... if only management had had the foresight to have avoided banking and investments over the past five years.

As I posted Tuesday, I was watching First Solar's (FSLR) earnings closely when they reported after Wednesday's bell.

Earnings for the quarter ended were strong, but FSLR's future outlook was even bleaker than I had imagined. Unfortunately I was not short the stock, but anyone that was short or held puts fared very well - shares fell $30, nearly 22%.

I have followed Transcontinental Pipelines (TCLP), a pipeline trust, for a very long time now.

Under normal market conditions it was a very stable stock (as it is in a widows-and-orphans industry), but during the last six months the stock has been effected by increased volatility as the general stock market became more unpredictable.

Amazon (AMZN) shocked the street recently when its holiday quarter numbers held up as the wider retail industry suffered through a horrible holiday season. Analysts and investors digested Amazon's reasonably strong performance favorably and tried to assess why they are succeeding while others are struggling.

As that euphoria was fading, Amazon kept its buzz strong by announcing the Kindle 2, Amazon's new and improved ebook viewer. The Kindle 2's release was anticipated after Amazon allowed the first Kindle to go out of stock during the holiday shopping season; the new Kindle will start shipping on February 24th. Many retail investors seem excited about the Kindle's prospects and some equate it with the early iPod. I think that such hopes are misguided.

Phil Gramm famously stated in July that "this is a mental recession." He followed up with further quotable remarks and some explanation of his statements (you can read a Washington Times writeup here). Despite anything else he said, his comment implying an imagined-recession, as Americans were paying $4 for gas and fearing pink slips, was what grabbed media attention. Though Mr. Gramm was quickly proven wrong by economic data that confirmed the existence of a very real recession, I understood his point: The current dire warnings perpetrated by our president and media that are predicting economic catastrophe are NOT promoting a quick recovery. A consumer is not encouraged to stimulate the economy via purchases, investment, or job creation if he is being force-fed predictions of the end of the world.

Alongside the general discussion about shrinking GDP and worsening employment numbers, many observers have been debating whether the current stimulative policies will result in massive inflation or crippling deflation. Proponents of the first idea claim that the rampant creation of money (TARP, Bailouts, Stimulus Bill, etc.) will result in Zimbabwe-like hyperinflation. Though the government is creating a couple trillion dollars, I personally believe that the huge stock, commodity, housing and derivative market losses will offset this fresh money. I nevertheless strongly disagree with the recent stimulus bill (at least in its most current forms), but for other reasons. I disagree because it is full of pet projects and pork, it will surely increase America's borrowing costs over time, and it will be my taxes that eventually pay off these debts. I'd like to keep much of the money that I plan to make.