willydo

2010 Investing: A Tale of Two Economies

Philip,

Great article...most entertaining and sums up my feelings exactly. No political correctness here....

We just need to keep getting all we can while the getting is good and buy some land and guns to protect oneself when things aren't so good. Burger King, Walmart, REZ... all these types should do well.
Willydo

Positioning for 2010: 10 Seeking Alpha Contributors Ready Their Portfolios

Uh, you need to click on the blue thingy to read the logic behind the comments.

Ziopharm: The Money's in the Bank, So What's Next?

Teacher,

Thanks for the great information.... I too was not happy with the dilution but went ahead and added to my existing position at the low to hopefully make something positive of it. It worries me how insiders to the placement can degrade the other shareholders but, hey, that's the market.
Please continue to update; it sounds like the direction is promising. I have been accumulating over the last year or so.
Willydo

Yen, Gold and the Perfect Desert Storm

Thanks Bob.....

www.economist.com/busi...

I read this article and it does seem to explain a bit about why the yen is rising even though just about everything else about Japan is negative. Lucky those citizens keep buying their own country's debt.
Willydo

Yen, Gold and the Perfect Desert Storm

Why is the yen high? Maybe someone could explain it to me. Today, these is an article saying that Japan is the ONE country to totally avoid (stock mkt) in the opinion of the writer. Also, the CDS has spiked recently amid concerns of Japan's huge debt. It it the highest of the rich countries and something like 145% (?) of their GDP. Their economy is going down (exporters hit by high yen) and their market is about 2% lower than it was at the beginning of this year unlike almost every other country that has had a nice run up in the markets.
So why is the yen so high not just against the $ but others as well???
Thanks,
Willydo

Robin Griffiths: Nikkei 225 Remains the One to Avoid Realtive to Others

I don't understand why the yen is strong and hurting Japanese exporters and rising against the dollar. The country is slipping back into deflation, the debt is the highest of any of the rich countries (something like 145% of GDP ?), the CDS are going high on worries of sovereign debt default (as stated above), and the market is to be avoided.....
AND YET that is the SAFE currency that investors go to in times of trouble?? Yes I know all about our dollar problems but it seems like Japan has even more critical problems. So if someone can explain that would be good.
Thanks,
Willydo

Market Outlooks by Sector: Part 1

Very informative article. I get my information visually so this appeals to me and it is instructive as well because of the technical analysis of each sector as well as a higher level view of the affects on the total market. Thanks

Willydo

Closed-End Funds and Tax Free Dividends

Not leveraged?
The article says to be careful of funds that have high yields as they may use leverage. According to CEFConnect, FMN is leveraged 39% and BNY is 38%. This IS high leverage. I'm not necessarily trying to criticise the article as I agree with others about doing your own homework but this could be misleading to a newcomer. From the original post:

"Just be cautious about investing in extremely high yield muni CEFs which may use leverage to attain their high yields.
"One of the highest yielding tax free stocks is Federated Premier Municipal Income Fund (FMN) which yields 7.8%. They have been paying monthly dividends since 2003".
Willydo

Ziopharm Oncology: Step by Step

Thanks for the information, Teacher. I at least have a bit of an idea what could be expected.

Regards,

Willydo

Ziopharm Oncology: Step by Step

I have held ZIOP for about 1.5 years and try to keep up with any news and the news has been encouraging lately.
I would be interested to know opinions on what value the stock should or could have going forward. I don't know much about these smaller biotecs but they are looking to partner and have 3 different drugs in the pipeline. The stock is in the 3-4$ range now. Could it go to 6? 8? 12? or more ? (I know it can go anywhere, but based on historical trends for companies involved in this sort of thing, what could be expected?
Thanks,
Willydo

9% Yields Still Available on Municipal Bond Funds

Garrett,

Why are closed in Muni Funds selling off today? NZF is off 3.5%. I see dividends are coming out next Tues but I have not seen these funds drop this much before. Is anything else going on? (IMT, IIM, NZF, MUA)
Thanks,
Willydo

9% Yields Still Available on Municipal Bond Funds

Garrett,
Very informative article. I have been using these funds a lot and do own NZF as one you mention above. There are some of these funds with lower costs but may have different characteristics as well. One is MUA. It has cost of .69%, provides 9.8% yield and is only leveraged 3.8 %. It has lower quality bonds but that is relative. I treat these more or less just like stocks. If they are hurt when rates finally rise, I will sell them but I have held them for many months now. I also hold Insured Muni's that pay a bit less but are very stable and have been around since 1993. (IMT, IIM)
Thanks,
Willydo

CEFs Week of 10/2/09; Wall of Worry

Two Pimco floating rate funds (PFN, PFL) dropped over 6% in one day (Friday). They did declare dividends earlier in the week and the amount was the same as it has been in recent months. ???

Willydo

CEFs Week of 9/25/09; Death of a Friend

Watch OUT for Cushing Total Return MLP (SRV). I owned this previously and got burned badly. I believe there was a lot of insider trading because the stock fell for no reason until an "announcement" was made. There were a lot of problems and conference calls but I would never trade the CEF again. There is a reason the chart looks like it does.

Nuveen Trashes Its CEF Website

I spoke too quickly. I was not using the new CEF Connect features correctly. There is more information there than I originally thought....you just have to look for it differently. It is not as easy as the old site but the information seems comparable.

Willydo