Srdjan Popovic

The Wisdom of Convertible Securities

Correct me if I am wrong, but you can hedge this position by simultaneously shorting 20 common shares at $14.60 for each convertible share and de facto making one time payment of $349 for continuous annual distributions of $72.50.

For a company of this stature, assuming there is no bankruptcy at the horizon, in all likelihood it should be a good deal.

Never Listen to the Rating Agencies

I believe that in the current crisis the role of the rating agencies went beyond those of neutral observers... as was the case many times before. For example, if you remember the Peso crisis in the early 90s you will recall that the rating agencies also gave great ratings to bonds depending on financial instruments that behind ten layers of smoke had only Mexican bonds. Take some junk bonds, repackage them a few times and hide that they even exist, and get A ratings. Only this time it was sub-prime. Are rating agencies incompetent or corrupt? Without proof it remains an open question.

LinkedIn Has Management Change as Recessionary Usage Increases

While the usage of LinkedIn free services is indeed likely to be countercyclical, do you suspect that this will be the case with upgraded accounts which represent one of their major sources of income? Are their paid services used for online schmoozing or by HR professionals? Does an average job seeker need them and how badly?

Will Adobe Scream 'Anti-Competitive' in the Face of a Microsoft Attack?

But the EU did not force them to drop pepperoni from the menu, only to let the customers choose if they want pepperoni or not. And it did not make the customers have to go elsewhere, they did not forbid anyone to install these programs from Microsoft. The point was to make installation of these programs optional.

When you buy a new car you can usually choose which CD player you want inside. From the EU perspective, if the car producer also makes CD players, they must allow the customers to choose if they want their player or another one, from another producer. We may like it or hate it, but that is the EU competition law.

Will Adobe Scream 'Anti-Competitive' in the Face of a Microsoft Attack?

From the European Commission's Directorate General for Competition perspective it doesn't matter if a program is installed on 98% or 8% of PCs, and they are right, it shouldn't matter as long as it is the customer's choice. The problem with Microsoft was that the programs were bundled with operating system and pre-installed for users, who did not have the right to choose not to install them, except by giving up on the OS or by uninstalling them later. It is about freedom of choice, not about percentages of users.

Five Ways to Profit from a Rebound in Commodities

I meant "collective vacations". This is when staff is not really fired but they don't have to come to work until further notice as there is nothing to do.

Five Ways to Profit from a Rebound in Commodities

If you look at the local media in Brazil you would see that the situation is not exactly rosy. Just this morning I read "Epoca" (see link: revistaepoca.globo.com...). Month over month, export is down 12,3% and import down 16.5%. Car sales dropped astonishing 25,7% between October and November. New jobs are down 85.7% and companies are laying people off or introducing collection vacations. 100,000 construction orders were canceled. Currency fell 40% in two months. Therefore, while I agree that the commodities will eventually rebound, we have to be careful and aware that the crisis is real.

A Remedy for Short Selling Manipulation

There is a theory put forward over 100 years ago that bear raids by themselves can't force the price down as the insiders and others with knowledge about the company would be more than happy to buy at lower prices and by doing so push them back up. Those who get in trouble are the technical speculators caught between two trends, but so be it. The buyers might decide to wait for a better entry, but they won't wait forever... if the company is any good, of course. However, when you have a lousy company or weak economic conditions, it is all too easy to blame it all on short-sellers.

Is the Microsoft Empire Cracking?

From "Microsoft still dominates client OS market for the businesses for now." and "No serious competition to Office." you conclude "Now, when this monopoly itself is under question, what can Microsoft do?".

And on what basis can you say "Every successful OS right now is UNIX or Linux based." if Windows has 90% of the market? How do you define successful?

I understand that you like Linux. I like it, too. I am using Linux as OS on boxes running my web servers and will continue to do so. But I prefer Windows desktops, as most users do.

Petrobras: Extremely Overvalued

The chart with NYSE price trends indeed shows that PBR has risen more steeply than Exxon, Chevron or Shell, but this is the price of ADR which has been impacted by the rise in value of Real versus US Dollar. It would be interesting to see the same chart in original currencies, in other words to use the stock price of Petrobras in Sao Paulo exchange (PETR3/PETR4). Would the price growth still be faster than with Exxon or Chevron?