Personal
Portfolio
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Best Buy?......
Not so much anymore. I've been exasperated more times than not and ended up buying nothing.
The
kicker was when an associate had to look up product details for me on
Amazon because the Best Buy site was lacking. Sort of begs the
question about buying anything from Best Buy in the first place,
doesn't it.
I do like to contribute to the local economy but sometimes enough is enough.
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Personal Portfolio
The question many people have, is who is doing all the trading?
Outflows from equity mutual funds continue at a good clip and
trading volume is down about 20% for the year so far and something like 40%
overall.
Must be a result of all those people getting suckered into fixed index annuities.
Personal Portfolio - A Speculative Case for Electronic Arts (EA)?
At
first glance one might think that I am scraping the bottom of the
barrel to come up with this one and it's one I've held a couple token
shares in for years.
For this reason I've kept it on my radar screen through thick and thin.
EA
certainly has been pumping out the news lately. It was the
Command & Conquer article that got my attention. I still play
their games.
I don't normally pay a lot of attention to analysts but the numbers for EA got my attention.
The
stock this last week was trading at 52 week lows so I decided to
email my tech-savvy sister for an opinion on the company.
Her response: 'Yes
I’d buy it—what EA is doing really well is moving into digital
world…it’s a big ship to turn but they have great console titles, and
have begun the move to digital--- they own PopCap etc! Well managed
company—go for it!'
This management discussion snippet is very recent, from early March and backs up other items I've read.
The full transcript is here.
However, I have traded this several times in the past and either came out on the losing end or barely broke even.
The numbers are not impressive at all and investing in EA to me is not investing, but a speculation.
However,
I seem to remember a guy by the name of Steve Jobs who came
back to successfully turn a company named Apple around and that worked
out ok.
Perhpaps John Riccitiello can do the same for EA.
I decided a 2.5% position at the starting price of $16.60 a share was worth the gamble.
An Expanded Positoin in Leisure
Living
in Nevada, this to me is a big deal, especially the bond sale at those
preferable rates. I figure this is worth 2% of the portfolio.
Number
two on the list is a position in Wynn Resorts for another 2% of the
portfolio. While MGM is more speculative, Wynn is one of
the 'Best of Breeds."
I've
owned IGT since I went on a buying spree after the market crash, dollar
cost averaging into the stock in the following years.
My overall
return to date is about 33%, including dividends. That's not bad
and, it's now worth about 1.5% of the portfolio.
I think things are looking up for IGT and apparently others do as well.
So, buying a 5.5% stake in leisure at these prices is what Bob would say as 'attractive for purchase' in my opinion.
I'd
say the odds doing well with these three stocks are considerably better
than if you sunk your money into 10 year TIPS, which are actually sport
a negative yield.
NEGATIVE YIELD?
I must admit I will be posting the numbers with a certain amount of glee to the 'Prophet Watch.'
A Rather Humorous Exchange:
Patsy Adams:
You know, as I think most people discovered by reading these comments, there is another subspecies of lesser human discovered in the US recently - Homo-Republicus.
Almost
identical to homo-sapiens, the Homo-Republicus differs mainly in it's
psychological traits, namely an acute inability to relate to creatures
around it (especially homo-sapiens).
They
have a severely diminished intellect and a severe tendency to lose
touch with reality including but not limited to: believing in
nonexistent higher 'powers' which can lead to incredible acts of
fear-based violence and severe paranoia.
They
possess self-damaging behaviors including but not limited to: poor diet
and heavy consumption of harmful chemicals for the sake of intoxication.
Homo-Republicus
has a pathological need to fit to the same standard as other members of
their species, and an incredibly strong desire to regulate the
behaviors of those around them (in particular homo-sapiens who they
hate above all other groups).
They possess a pathological hatred for females in particular.
Female
homo-sapiens generally show a strong unwillingness to mate with male
homo-republicus even to the point of preferring to copulate with
females of their own species instead.
Mark:
All that just to tell us that you're a lesbian?
Patsy Adams
Yup
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Steven Dolen:
Patsy Adams - What an incredible lack of class.
Amanda Rollins:
Classless and Clueless
| THE PROPHET WATCH
What we have here is CNBC's prophet, seer, revelator - and major PITA. Detailed Opinion Here
Financial Analyst - NOT
Soothsayer - NOT
Bearer of Practical Financial Advice - Occasional
Man's Worst Nightmare - Maybe......
Having to listen to annuity pitches interspersed with vitamin infomercials could be worse.
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Let's keep track of just how well this PITA's 'predictions' pan out for the rest of the year.
| 2012 |
Predicted |
Jan |
Feb |
Mar |
Apr |
May |
Jun |
Jul |
Aug |
Sep |
Oct |
Nov |
Dec |
| Gold |
$2,000.00 |
1736.7 |
1716.28 |
1671.9 |
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| Recession |
60%
Chance |
Nope! |
Nope! |
Nope! |
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| TIPS
Current 5yr Yield |
Home
Run - Maybe |
0.95% |
0.90% |
-.126% |
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One of the many zebras on the Hears properties in San Simeon, California
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