rickf

Is Being Bearish About the U.S. Market Unpatriotic?

Screw the media - their job is to gather viewers and rally the masses. Right now anyone looking to go long most equities after this parabolic rally in recent months is nuts. Not patriotic, just nuts.

Using Options to Get a Sirius Discount

You want to buy Siri dirt cheap as a speculative play just sell the DEC or JAN $1 puts and be done with it. :)

Why We're Enthusiastic About Brazil

PZE is the smaller subsidiary of Petrobras, I think.

PBR and PBR/A are the "mother" company.

(Disclosure: Long PBR/A)

Canadian Energy Trusts: The Best Long Term Income and Dollar Hedge?

I'd add Penngrowth (PGH) as a reliable CanRoy - from what I have seen in my own research, the firm cut its dividend (still pretty nice though) and is the best-hedged in terms of guarding against oil volatility....I think they're like 55% hedged or something, far more than their peers up north.

Disclosure: Long PGH via shares and short puts

12 CNBC Pet Peeves

Great start -- let's add:

- The OCTABOX. Why do we need EIGHT talking heads screaming at each other so nobody, including the viewer, can understand them? In fact, the shouting in general when folks are in the studio talking to the camera.

- Cheap sound effects for screen fades, wipes, and transitions. It is a gimmick and annoying as hell. Even worse is listening to a Congress hearing they're covering on XM Radio while driving to NYC and in the middle of Paulson you hear that World-of-Warcraft-esqu... "sprinkle" as they flip the market data slides on-screen.

- The producer and/or VP who was quoted in an article last year saying how CNBC wanted "more conflict" on-screen. That, along with what I'm saying here, has turned CNBC from semi-useful to mildly-entertaining and horribly-irritating. [1]

- Agree that Rick Santelli is one of the few shining lights on the network who has been right more than he's been wrong, but also doesn't "play" with the infotainment aspect and keeps to the BUSINESS issue at hand.


[1] - Thank gods I started getting Fox Business here in Arlington, VA. With that, we also got Bloomberg, so my CNBC-viewing is *much* reduced and my TV business news indeed is "news" and not "business reality television."

Does Valuation Matter?

Frankly given the shaky data that 'analysts' and pundits base their reports and recos on, I think fundamentals and 'value' numbers are fairly meaningles. The past year it's been all about emotion and psychology, not value -- meaning momentum is key. Great stocks can get pummelled into submission because of traders' emotion, not because their 'value' suddenly changes....to that end since last year I've taken any report of 'valuation' or 'cheap' or 'expensive' companies with a BIG grain of salt, because in many cases, the numbers can be fudged rather easily to sustain a few more weeks of price buoyancy. (*cough* BSC, CFC, BAC, UBS, MER, LEH, et.al) With fundamental data being demonstrated as questionable in many of these companies, I really think it's idiotic to place much faith in 'value' calls on a company's numbers. I mean, LEH, C, and UBS may be considered 'value' stocks now but I wouldn't touch them with your money, let alone mine.

Similarly -- the mere fact that 'analysts' and 'rating agencies' still have generally-safe ratings on the mortgage firms (clearly a meaningless rating @ the moment) tells you all you need to know about the concept of 'value' and 'safety' in the market.

The other commenter is correct - it's all about momentum at the moment. P/E, fundies, and such just, in my view, don't matter these days. Perhaps interesting to learn as part of trading homework, but a firm's "valuation" wouldn't be more than 30% of my decision to enter a trade.