Forbes on Google

While you wait for the rest of my Google analysis (it may be a while), you can read this article over at Forbes that closely matches my own thinking. Google Still Cheap Atop Tech Heap by Georges Yared. Peace out, Investor Geeks.

Why I Waited To Comment On The 50 Basis Cut

Whenever I am way off the mark I take a step back, watch and think. It is hard for me to be this way off the mark with respect to the Fed. I was wrong, and I mean WAY wrong on Bernanke’s and the Fed’s decision on how their decision (1,2,3).

When I am this way off I figure that I must have missed something. I must have not considered a certain factor. Thus I need to see how things play out. And what I privately feared with the 50 basis cut is coming true. I thought that they would not cut 50 basis points due to the ramifications of a weak dollar.

My Fed Rate Guess, No Cut 45%, 25 Cut 35%, 50 Cut 20%

I listened to Bernanke speak live at the German Bundesbank and I REALLY liked his speech. I am going to cut Bernanke some slack.

Listening to his talk here is my guess on what Bernanke and maybe the Fed will do next.

  • 25 basis point cut – 35%: If he cuts he will give a stern talking that this is not the start of a series of cuts.
  • No cut – 45%: He will say that he is watching the market closely and will react if , and he will say that he is watching the market closely and will react very quickly if things go wrong.
  • 50 basis point cut20%: I not guessing he will do this.

The IceBerg Order

TraderFeed, and bzbtrader have been talking about how large orders are split into smaller orders. TraderFeed wrote:

In other words, if you were to simply look at trades and trade volume, you’d conclude that small traders were dominating the marketplace. The reality is, however, that large traders continue to hold sway, but have succeeded in disguising their presence.

This is not new, and in fact my broker supports it and calls it the iceberg order. I talked to some Investment Banking folks and they told the iceberg order is pretty run of the mill type stuff.

Case Study: DELL Earnings August 31, 2007

Dell posted earnings that seemed pretty good and yet the stock dropped. Right after the earnings report the general opinion was as follows.

Dell said the strong results in the quarter reflected strength in enterprise products and services, improved average selling prices and favorable component costs.

The company did not provide specific guidance, but did say near-term results could be hurt by a slower decline in component costs in the second half.

Using Microsoft Excel for Trading

Tom at Neural Market Trends asked:

Nice, I was planning on using Excel to build an interface with their API as well. Was it hard to do? Do I need to learn Visual Basic?

What I want to do is address this question from a trading perspective.

Google is a Value Play

WallStrip is touring the Google campus today. I just opened a position in GOOG a few days ago and have some more money slated to invest in it if the price drops from here or breaks up from here (and forces a MA crossover). Christian asks why I feel the need to invest in GOOG. The simple answer is that I think the price is going to go up… a lot.

People are scared off by the $500 price tag, but GOOG is actually a value play by my calculations. Let’s try this. E*Trade has GOOG’s 2006 EPS at $10.58. So what would GOOG’s EPS growth rate and average PE need to be to warrant a sticker price of $515? The answer is a 20% growth rate and average PE of 30. Here’s the math:

Book Review: The Black Swan

Rating: Two Thumbs Up, Required Reading, with a note of caution.

This book review is hard for me to explain. On the one hand I want to say, go, go, go buy this book. On the other hand this book is not like Fooled By Randomness. Fooled By Randomness I feel was a book written because Taleb had some interesting musings. A book to amuse. The Black Swan is when Taleb gets on his soap box, explains, teaches, and rants.

It was funny at one point in the book Taleb points out how Merton Scholes sent Taleb a seven page discussion on how Taleb was a bozo, at least that is how I interpret the comment. I have people sending me email and comments on how I am a bozo, but I have as of yet not received seven pages. When you receive seven pages you pushed on somebody’s hot button.

Why Do You Want To Catch a Falling Knife?

I find it amazing that with a 10% drop in the market reached it is now time to buy? Why? Because P/E ratios are good? Because cash flow is good? The economy is still good and strong right? And therefore there is no recession?

It’s a time to buy right? After all it seems all the professional traders are buying… (It seemed somebody was buying today)