An InvestorGeek’s Beginnings: Cards & Comics

Can you tell I’m happy and proud to be an InvestorGeek? Though I’m one of the new writers here, I have been blogging about investment and finance issues for a while now. Nevertheless, I am excited and looking forward to sharing with you some of my thoughts on investing. Why did I decided to join with the geeks? For that, let’s go back to Wikipedia’s defintion of a geek:

A geek (pronunciation /gi:k/ ) is a person who is fascinated, perhaps obsessively, by obscure or very specific areas of knowledge and imagination.

It’s hip to be geek nowadays! Just look at the varieties we have — music geeks, movie geeks, gaming geeks, singing geeks. Even when I was young, the foundation was being laid out for me to become the InvestorGeek that I am today.

Naked Options: Options for Nudists?

Phil Town took an email recently about naked put options. A Rule #1 reader was trying use naked puts to make a little extra money while he waited for a stock to fall to a reasonable MOS (margin of safety) price. It’s an interesting tactic, and Phil has a great response.

Trading strategies are great, but a more pressing issue for me was how this article got me thinking about these so-called naked options. Why are they “naked”?

If Housing Prices Stopped Rising

According to the latest stats, American home prices are still on the rise – in most major markets across the nation.

The National Association of Realtors published a median increase of 4.2% from 1/06 to 4/06. Compare this figure to the published 16.6% last year.

Although prices appear to be leveling off, many economists don’t predict a sour turn for the worst.

New Authors Coming Soon!

I just wanted to thank everyone who submitted applications to become an InvestorGeek last week. We’ve had some great candidates apply and we’re looking forward to great new members! We’ve been reviewing the applications and will be contacting contributers as we decide on them. In the meantime look for new content from us all this (more…)

Become an InvestorGeek Today! Applications Now Open!

First, we’d like to apologize to all our readers for the relatively light week, it’s been a crazy 7 days for us. We’d also like to thank those who have already submitted complete applications. Don’t worry for those still thinking about it, there is no preference or penalty based on when you submit an application (more…)

Crystallex (AMEX:KRY), Las Cristinas Update

You guys may know that I have a position in Crystallex (AMEX: KRY). If you follow the stock, you know that yesterday was a bad day. There was a press release today, which speaks of… well let me just quote some of it:

If you follow the stock, you know that yesterday was a bad day. There was this press release, which speaks of… well let me just quote some of it:

Crystallex International Corporation … announced today that, subject to receipt of all necessary regulatory and shareholder approvals, it has agreed to amend the terms of certain unlisted common share purchase warrants … held by two holders in the United States. The proposed amendment is in relation to 2,272,727 Warrants originally issued by the Corporation as part of an issuance of 4,545,455 special warrants (each special warrant consisting of one common share and one-half of one Warrant) completed on August 29, 2003. Each Warrant entitles the holder thereof to acquire one common share in the capital of the Corporation at an exercise price of US$2.75 per share until September 15, 2006.

Read on for much much more…

Become an InvestorGeek on June 16th

Attention! Attention! I’m pleased to announce our first call for applications to become an InvestorGeek! Starting June 16th at 12:00am (that’s the morning of next Friday) we will be accepting applications for 24 hours to fill 10 new InvestorGeek spots. It’s easy to apply, and we’re looking for anyone who wants to be part of building the Internet’s premiere investing blog!

Reading: Day Traders

We here at InvestorGeeks lean towards the side of “fundamental” “investing”, but as I’ve been reading up on technical analysis for my upcoming articles I’ve run into some interesting reading. When we invest in a market, we want to know the players. We spend a lot of time trying to figure out what the institutional (more…)

Microsoft (MSFT) Stock Update

Last week, we were watching Microsoft’s stock and hoping it could break through the resistance level at $24. If it did that, the stock was set for a nice break into the mid-to-high twenties. Instead, the stock dropped along with the general market and tech sectors. Closing price yesterday was around $22.50.

How Much Should You Spend on a Home?

In my previous article, Misconception: Renting is for Suckers, I wrote that there comes a point when it makes more sense to rent an apartment than buy a home. For myself, I have a rule of thumb that for every $1 dollars I spend in rent a month I can afford to buy up to $125 in property. Right now I pay $1000 in rent, so using my rule I shouldn’t spend more than $125,000 on a home. This created a surprising amount of controversy; some exclaiming me a heretic, and some accusing me of house-hating. For those of you who wanted to know where that number came from, wait no longer — and I’ve put together a calculator for you to figure out how much you should spend on a home.