Some good stuff from an interview with Jim Cramer here on YouTube. I think we have a few months left on our TheStreet.com subscription. I might check out their TV offerings a bit more. I hear that WallStrip is over there now too.
Ford is dire straits and we knew that. So what do they do? Sell Aston Martin! Idiots!!!! I am being harsh because I have not seen that much lunacy in a while. Aston Martin is profitable for Ford, and they sell what is profitable. What does Ford keep? Whatever is loosing money.
The Premier Auto Group, bogged down primarily by Jaguar, handed in a pretax loss of $344 million. Mulally, Ford’s top executive since September, has said Jaguar is not currently for sale.
Annual production dipped as low as just 46 cars in 1992. But the brand [Aston Martin] has enjoyed a resurgence this decade — a record 7,000 Aston Martins were sold worldwide last year and a similar number are expected to be purchased in 2007.
Oh yes let’s keep the stuff that is bleeding Ford and sell what is profitable for Ford! Yes that is smart, NOT!
Ok so the market is dropping, and as per my earlier comments you should wait until the Dow hits 11,750 before thinking of stepping in. I am changing my opinion. Yes I think the Dow will drop, but I think there is something more going on here.
For those that follow the car industry the linked news is definitely interesting. When I was studying to become a mechanical engineer I spent many a workterm working at Magna. My father was a higher-level manager at Magna and I used to have quite a few friends at Magna. For those that don’t know about Magna, think of it as the Microsoft of the car industry.
Magna was started by Frank Stronach an Austrian tool and die maker in the early 70’s. Frank found a niche in supplying car parts for the car industry. Supplying parts these days is a very lucrative business. What made Magna different from the rest is that they built an innovative company that appreciated its workers through things like profit-sharing.
Since I cashed out of equities about two months ago I have waited and watched for this pullback. I don’t trust the market because it seems to have forgotten about economics as illustrated by the referenced article.
I understand the market ignoring the slide in factory orders as a blip, but the out-pacing of wages to productivity is a problem. That is called inflation, and it is bad inflation, namely core inflation. I have noticed this core inflation problem at the stores as they have been scrimping on the sales, even if it is ever so slightly. I do the shopping in the household and I notice that prices have been moving upwards, again ever so slightly. As long as we have a core inflation problem there will be no interest rate drop, that means housing will be hurt and that means problems with our economy.
Sorry folks for not blogging sooner. I have some insights to the market, but right now I am recovering from a vicious bout of food poisoning. In the past six years I have had four food poisoning’s and three times it was from sandwiches that I bought while driving. You would think it is a problem specific to a store or country. Nope, not at all, I bought bad sandwich’s in Canada, Austria, and Germany. What was common between them all? It was the meat that went bad. (Go vegans go?)
Ok to the topic, and the book review of When Genius Failed. I was recommended this book on CNBC Power Lunch Europe by a professional trader when I asked the question, “I understand the theory behind options, pricing, hedging, Greeks, and have read the classics like Hull, but I am wondering what books I should read to implement a hedging strategy as I do not have access to professional traders?” The trader’s answer was interesting in that he said, “What you need is experience and therefore the books you should buy are Hedge Hogging (which I read), Liars Poker, or When Genius Failed.
Yes, I’m still an InvestorGeek! It might seem like only Jason and Christian are blogging lately, but I don’t mind being the guest that drops in once in a while. I’m sure many of you have watched or heard of the new Mark Burnett-produced game show called “Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader“. If not, you can read a quick description here.
I was inspired after reading Canadian blogger, Tony Hung’s short diatribe on who’s really smarter – the kids or the adults? Tony, if you don’t know, is an editor at the prominent new media site, BlogHerald. I’ve had the privilege to meet him, and trust me, he’s one smart dude! But I digressed since the question remains, who ARE the smart ones? What does it mean to be smart? Is it just about random trivia or knowledge? After all, adults were able to create a show like that to make money! Aha…. now that money comes into play, that’s my lame segway to discussing financial smarts!
The following is a paid review…
Finance Markets is a blog written by some folks across the pond. Despite an understandable bias towards European news and posting prices in British pounds, the blog is applicable to investors everywhere.
The Finance Markets blog is updated a lot. There are about 3-6 posts every day, most of which come from one Elaine Frei. The posts cover a familiar range of finance topics from “Economy” to “Investments” to “Property“. There are also some “personal finance topics” like “Insurance“, “Loans“, and “Banking“.
The writing is generally good and much more professional than your typical blog. In fact, I might say that the posts are a bit too professional. There is a bit of a lack of character to the entries. The lack of a way for users to comment on a post don’t help this.
Still I’d say the site is worth a look. Browse around for topics that interest you and you might learn a thing or too. This blog would be especially useful if you are interested in getting a European view of the market. There are daily recaps of the action in the US markets, with citations from some sources that might not be on your reading list.
On days like these, it’s good to be 100% cash. I am holding some mutual funds in my IRA, but that was only down a little under 1% today (The only real loser was an S&P ETF I have 25% of my holdings in). However, my personal trading account was sidelined through this mess today. (more…)
My original version of this blog entry has been deleted because I did find some errors in my spreadsheet. I saw them when I was explaining what I thought I had found while doing my calculations. The new calculations are not as I thought they were, but still some interesting things can be extracted from (more…)