Lightway

Buy-Write ETFs: Minimizing the Market's Angst

I started reading your article and ETW immediately came to mind as something to suggest in the comments. But looks like you beat me to it. I also backtested this ETF over the past 5 years, and it returned 11.11% versus S&P (including dividends) return of 3.47%.

I mainly purchased this as a defensive move back in January to help smooth out my portfolio during rocky times, but it has beat the S&P 500 by a mile on the upside, and I love getting those big dividends every quarter.

Oracle: EC Has 'Profound Misunderstanding' of Database Market

Very well said. There is alot of speculation that Oracle bough MySQL to in fact kill it, even though they typically compete in different spaces.

One more note with regards to MySQL code. Though it is "open source," there have been very very few code commits from the open source community over the past few years. Most of the code enhancements have been done by dedicated (paid) MySQL developers.


On Nov 11 06:51 PM Robert0713 wrote:

> Fact: MySql is *not* Open Source, it is dual license, always was
> from day one. The original MySql developers used the commercial
> license funds to pay for the Open Source code as well. Oracle bought
> the InnoDB company, which provides an engine for the MySql wrapper
> which closely imitates Oracle syntax. There is an arm's length relationship
> between Oracle and MySql pre-merger; with merger, there is nothing
> to prevent Oracle from suspending both using commercial license fees
> to support the Open Source MySql and halting further development
> and support for InnoDB. Doing either would force existing commercial
> users of MySql into Oracle database. That's what the EU wants to
> prevent.

Why I'm Still Buying Johnson & Johnson at These Levels

"I think the fact that last week he bought $8MM+ land in Florida and then 2 days later announces he's firing 8,000 people speaks volumes to the type of leadership now running J&J."

I liquidated all of my shares in this company because of this exact reason. Disgusting.

Hydrogen-Fueled Cars Become a Thing of the Present

My take is that there is some advocacy or an industry PR machine up and running (either from the oil or auto industry or combination of both), providing these standard talking points, aimed at trying to keep hydrogen in check. When you pit alternative energy sources against each other like that, it makes the status quo oil machine look that much more appealing.

They are well designed talking points, but easily dismissed with a little bit of basic research, as witnessed in this thread.

I agree with the sentiments in many of the comments, that there is no one clear energy answer. A combination portfolio of electric, natural gas, hydrogen, solar, and fuel cells should be able to service our needs. Even once-dismissed technologies like algae harvesting are showing new promise.

On Nov 04 02:45 PM Tyson at EINow wrote:

> J Clinton Hill, thank you for posting this article. Hydrogen is
> a thing of the present. In reading the comments attached to the
> article, I see a dangerous trend; many of the comments pit BEV against
> FCVs. Both hydrogen fuel cells and BEVs are necessary to get us
> off of gasoline and diesel. It's not one or the other, its both.
> While BEVs offer great promise for short range, light duty applications,
> they lack the recharge, range, and power capability for longer haul,
> load bearing trips. If we drop hydrogen, we drop a viable solution
> to our climate problem, oil dependency, etc. And let's remember
> the hydrogen end game: production from renewable sources. We have
> only scratched the surface of what is possible, and have enough renewable
> resources to power our entire US fleet with hydrogen based on today's
> technologies:
> nrel.gov/docs/fy07...
>
> Thank you Chris at CaFCP for clearing up some of the mis-perceptions
> surrounding hydrogen.

Federal Pay Continues to Skyrocket: Both Parties Are Out of Control

Enron had a very similar performance evaluation system to what you're describing

> I'd like to see these Federal workers get systematically ranked
> rated per the custom at GE and Intel and charted for income versus
> rank.
> Then drop the bottom 15% and decide if the current work load justifies
> their replacement.
>

Federal Pay Continues to Skyrocket: Both Parties Are Out of Control

I do not work for the Federal government or any government.

Perhaps we should look at more relevant private sector issues such as equitable distribution of compensation. Yes I know that is a foul phrase to some with a particular ideological slant, some would even exaggerate and accuse it of implying socialism. However, executives making multi-million dollar bonuses, and lavished with obscene packages like golden parachutes (wish I could get millions for getting fired) while simultaneously laying off staff, seems to be a much greater pay issue than people making an honest living keeping the country running. These executives bring little marginal return of value relative to the gross amount of compensation they are being given, and as a shareholder I would tend to question their return of value back to the company. Factor in executive compensation in the private sector versus executive compensation in the Federal government, and let's see the disparity.

Even still, we have seen absolutely no aggregate figures on what kind of tax burden the average tax payer has to keep the Federal employee work force employed. All we have is this out of context chart, and even then, don't you think the trillions of tax payer money spent bailing out mismanaged private sector companies eclipses, by an exponential order of magnitude, the cost of paying for people trying to make an honest living? What about dated weapons systems such as the B-2 and a fictional missile defense shield? How much are those costing us?

The assumption being made in those links simply suggests Federal workers do not provide any value whatsoever back to society, which is simply nothing more than an ideological rant window dressed with an out of context graph.

On Oct 27 11:27 AM ctjaeger wrote:

> From the tone of your post, it would sound as if you are a government
> employee. The simple point of the article is that federal government
> employee's have enjoyed a much greater rise in their incomes than
> have workers in the private sector. Since government doesn't produce
> anything and relies on the private sector for 100% of it's revenue,
> it would seem that the two trend lines should at least match. Federal
> employment has had net job growth through this recession compared
> to the private sector.
>
> At these levels and at a 20% federal income tax rate, it takes five
> government workers to pay enough in income taxes to pay for one additional
> government worker. It takes almost 10 private sector workers to
> pay enough in income taxes to pay for one government worker. I'm
> not sure that type of leverage is sustainable over the long-term.
> Not only are the federal employment rolls growing, their overall
> compensation is growing faster than in the private sector. Certainly
> anyone can see a looming problem in those facts.

Federal Pay Continues to Skyrocket: Both Parties Are Out of Control

This sounds like a thinly veiled counterattack against the government for going after private sector bonuses and pay caps. The article also does not dig deep into Federal pay issues, such as cost of living adjustments, which were in part driven up due to skyrocketing housing costs.

How did the woman quoted in the article come up with the "five streets over" figure? Did she catalog every single house, its value, and the occupants occupation? That's some pretty shoddy statistics collection based on a poorly constructed anecdote that is making really broad assumptions.

Also, how dare people actually make good money for a living? Why, this sort of activity should be outlawed, and all Federal job functions outsourced to China and India for pennies on the dollar!

Pershing Square Looks at Prison...as a Real Estate Play

Sorry, but prisons are the last thing that need to be privatized and opened up for investment. You have a non-market driven set of goods and services which is dependent on putting more people in prison. There is absolutely no place for this in society. We already have seen the entire world economy melt down because of unbridled economics, and this was in areas (banking, investment, finance, housing) where free market economics were supposed to be the most efficient. Do we really think privatization and investment in prisons is a smart thing to do? We've already seen rampant abuse of security contractors in places like Iraq.

The fact that Ackman even makes jokes about it is sad commentary.

“The biggest risk for Corrections Corp. is that suddenly lots of people stop committing crimes,” Ackman said.

That says it all. Sorry, the market is not the place for EVERYTHING. Besides, there are better places to invest your money.

Peer to Peer Lending: An Alternative Asset Class?

National Retail Fund has gone out of business

The 10 Best U.S. Dividend Stocks

Examples?


On Oct 08 09:58 AM Leif Peterson wrote:

> My guess is that the dividend yields of these stocks are low, and
> in the 3-4% range. There are other well run US corporations whose
> yields are twice as high, whose risk of reducing dividend payouts
> is low. These other companies have also increased their dividend
> yield and have shown increased earnings through the recent subprime
> mortgage crisis of Sept/Oct '08.

Getting Ready for Retirement

Compared with many of the equities mentioned above, PCY's dividend does not have a history of growing over time, however, the payout seems to have been consistent, which is what you want to counter when equity total return goes south:

www.buyupside.com/divi...

How to Tell a Real Economic Recovery

I have had these problems as well

I also noticed there was an option to show my user password, when I log in, as a clear text password.

I'd highly recommend Seeking Alpha to do a security audit on their code to look for potential holes. I have stayed away from this site more than normal because of the security risk.


On Aug 18 04:08 PM David Van Knapp wrote:

> I have the same problem. A new variation occurred about an hour ago.
> Instead of the forced bogus virus scans, new browser windows kept
> opening--it got up to 82 before I was able to pull the plug.
>
> I just wrote to Boaz Berkowitz at SA, and I suggest others do the
> same. His e-mail address is [e-mail] .

Procter & Gamble Struggles Against Consumers' Retreat

Question for anyone in marketing at the big brand name firms. Aren't generic brands sold at stores manufactured by the brand name company anyway? They are just rebranded under the store's name and offered at cheaper prices.

Intel Becomes Lab for Flash Versus Drive Debate

I feel it's only a matter of time before all hard drives are replaced by solid state devices. The reason? What breaks the most in computers? Anything with moving parts. What are the slowest devices in computers? Anything with moving parts.

At that point, you just need to be able to deal with power spikes on the boards to be able to protect the data.

Though not yet ready to power enterprise apps, solid state should be the norm within 10 years.

12 Potential Dividend Growth Plays

I had similar experiences that DesertRat had, it was super easy and took only 5 minutes.

I used Turbo Tax Deluxe

On Aug 04 10:16 AM StockData.org wrote:

> Slightly OT, saw the article list some MLP's. For MLP owners here...
> how time consuming is completing your tax return?