disaster2008

Too Many Headwinds for United Online

I agree - their management is highly skilled and creative. They will make more moves to replace and grow revenue and earnings. Their dividend is safe and their is much upside to the stock pending new announcements. In the meantime, you are paid to wait.

Why Everything You've Heard About Leveraged ETFs Is Wrong

nice article -

but are the bar graphs under #2 (Leveraged ETFs can only be understood by sophisticated investors) showing ETF assets/ total exposure correct? Seems like the first (starting point) should be 100 million assets/300 million exposure, the second 97 million assets/291 million exposure, and the third ~94.1 million/282.3 million given the 1% x 3 loss each day?(100 million > 97 million > 94.1 million)?

may be I am one of those idiots that shouldn't be investing in these?

This Recession Isn't Over: Now for the Hard Part

Americans should now invest in natural capital and their local economy Grow your own food - plant a vegetable garden and fruit trees. Plant food-producing shade trees to cool your house in the summer. Improve your neighborhood - cleanup the vacant lot. Get rid of your TV and enjoy the outdoors - reconnect with nature. Walk or bike instead of drive to the store if you can - get some exerciseand save money on gas and car repairs - invest in the local economy. The investments will make you happy and pay off for future generations.

The Banking Sector Isn't Out of the Woods

I would like to hear more from the author on the gross vs. net exposure distinction mentioned above by cholmley.

July Will Be a Turning Point for FAZ

Thanks. I have bought into FAZ and SDS in the last couple days because I think the market is heading down after selling most of my long individual stock positions except a few with decent dividends and upside (UNTD). Admittedly, I really don't know that much about FAZ and SDS and appreciate the info here. I would appreciate more info about how these are managed behind the scenes - like what are the underlying investments and how are they traded?

I'm a Smith Micro Investor with Reasons to Be Wary

Wondering what the effect of stock options are on earnings and cash flow if a company grows from a small cap to a mid-cap, and eventually to a large cap for example? The founders of Google, Microsoft, and Oracle got very rich - but so did the early shareholders. Are SMSI employees getting more than these companies did when they were small caps?

I am long SMSI - I got in along time ago at 0.75-1.50/share and it has been a wild ride. I have to say that Bill Smith has a long-term outlook. he has done a lot to transform SMSI into a major player in the wireless arena - if he needs options to help retain good employees, perhaps we should believe him - I don't think SMSI hires anyone they consider as "dross".

The Long Case for Horizon Lines

Mr Ships: why replace something when it can be fixed?

Dividends: A Company's Leading Indicator

What are other good parameters for judging the "reliability" of a dividend? I have generally been looking for dividend yields between 4-8% (or more if possible), and I only buy these stocks when they appear under valued so hopefully I can make gains due to stock price appreciation - so I am not buying much now because I think we are in for a correction so I will wait for better opportunities. I typically look at payout ratio, analyst earnings trends, cash/share, debt, and levered free-cash flow. What else?

22 Dividend Stocks with Good Fundamentals

schwab's stock screener is pretty good for searching out high dividend paying stocks using many other criteria, including payout ratio (generally the lower the better) they also rate stocks (A-F) and mark the rating with an asterisk (*) if an announcement to cut the dividend has been made.

Leaving Green to the Free Market - Barron's

For a free market to exist and work, the true costs of each product need to be accounted for. We don't have a fee market. If so, oil companies would not get tax breaks and subsidies, the cost of gasoline would compensate for its impacts on society, including health and environmental impacts, and not to mention all the money spent on road and highway infrastructure. If gas were $10 gallon or more to pay for all of these costs, other cleaner technologies would proliferate. The fact is that lobbyists are a hindrance to the free market, and in essence, corporations are the government. The only thing that should be too big too fail is the government, but by allowing corporations to gain control and become to big to fail, government has failed itself.

Overleveraging: An Unsustainable Way of Life

i am currently saving about 50% of my take home pay as cash, not even including automatic payments to retirement accounts. I own a home with about 90% equity. Not that hard. Just need to enjoy the simple things in life and enjoy finding creative ways to do things.

Good News Points to Recession's End by July

It is too bad that many of these comments are so shallow and poorly written. If you have a point of view for or against, at least provide some context.

Will Bear Market Rally Continue or Stall Out?

Too soon for too much of a sustained rally, even though, based on long-term future cash flows, the market is way oversold. What happens in the next 6 weeks will mainly depend on the news. if Obama continues to take center stage to calm the markets and restore confidence in the face of otherwise bad news, the rally could continue into early December. But it seems likely another sell-off will occur before the end of the year. That would probably be the time to buy and hold since the market could take off with Obama taking office and with 4th quarter earnings probably on the upside (since expectations are so low) in the January-February timeframe.

5 Reasons to Ignore Buffett

Buffett rules in terms of both ethics and wisdom.

See the Motley fool article by Bill Mann "Is Buffett talking up his own Book"

You like others, are just trying to get attention. BTW - Who are you? probably not a billionaire!

Also take a look at the S&P 500 graph from 1950 to present - now is the time to buy for long-term investors. In 10 years the fear and the low stock prices will be gone.

Getting Clobbered: Why I Changed My Investment Rules

Buy low, Sell high. Don't chase stocks up - they will likely come back down. Keep a list of quality stocks that you are interested in based on fundamentals, earnings, growth, and financial strength. In this volatile market, buy using limit orders whan they appear to bottom out and sell using limit orders when they rebound. Then repeat. If you buy stocks with good dividend yields, all the better, because if you miss on the bottom on the stock continues to drop and need to hold, you will still get a return on yoir money. Also, dividend paying stocks are and will be attractive so they are less likely to stay depressed. When to sell: when you think you can buy back the stock at a cheaper price based on its market fluctuations in the absence of any significant company-specific news. Have a good number of stocks on your list so you always have options.