money

November, 2010

"The next two years, hopefully without the current leadership in Congress and the Senate, will be a period of rebuilding what has burned, and rebuilding anew the structure that will support this country. We have a good foundation already, we just need to plan the construction carefully.........

and without a Government Inspector telling us how it should be done. "

HeckSpawn  
The Professional Opinion

DJIA: 11118.49

Prediction from the Horse's Mouth

Prediction

Buy Recommendations

Suncor (SU) when you can get it under $33.00 a share.

Comment:  I have found that with this stock and a beta of somewhere around 1.7,  Suncor makes for a better trading stock than a buy and hold stock.  You just need a little patience.

 
 California Coast
The Bandon Lighthouse - Bandon, Oregon...on a day when the clouds not as bad as they usually are for the time of year. 

Personal Portfolio
YTD
Turns out BGS foods and Altria were very good choices for the year.  Everyone needs to eat, drink and engage in one of the seven deadly Zins on the odd occasion.
Change is coming - Finally

I think Sharon Angle has a reasonable chance for ousting our local embarrassment to the free world.  That is, if she can manage to keep her mouth shut for a couple more weeks. The sad thing is that most of us are voting against a candidate, rather than voting for one.  That is the case in this election too.

Odds are the Conservatives are going to take control of at least one house and I think the markets are will breathe one big collective sigh of relief.......and then rally because the specter of gridlock will once again become reality.

If one were to position their assets into quality stocks with a little speculation mixed in for good measure, one could make out quite well.


Finance

Personal Portfolio

Bank of America

Bank of America

Well, this one did not work out well as the demonization of big banks continues.  What the news does not say regarding robo-foreclosures, is that 95% or better of those foreclosures are fully warranted.

I fail to see how this is a big deal and I don't think that it is, except in the minds of the pinheads in the media.

Anyway, I decided to take this one to 5% of the portfolio.

Citi

Too many well respected analysts and fund managers have given CITI the two thumbs up to ignore it.  Goldman Sachs is the latest to join the party, with a near term price prediction of 5.60 or so.

The theory is that CITI will continue to improve as the government continues to unwind its position in the company.  Makes sense to me.

Still,  I think it is worth a position of about 1.5% of the portfolio.  I got in at 4.03.


Standard Pacific Homes (SPF)

Standard Pacific Homes

Standard Pacific (SPF) is once again cheap enough to consider looking at. I got back in at 3.67 and expect I will be seeing over 4.00 in the not too distant future. It moves around enough not to make money if you have patience.

What I do is sell somewhere over 4, take half the profits and add that to the quality section of the portfolio, and add the other half back into the speculation bucket.  

It works out pretty well.

The Switch

The Switch

I decided to take myself up on my own advice the beginning of October and temporarily move Fidelity GNMA and Fidelity Growth and Income into Fidelity Value.  So far I have a 3.8% gain for the GNMA's and a 1.7% on the G&I.  I would have done this sooner but when you are working with OPM,  more caution is not as profitable, but prudent.  

If the market rallies as expected when boatloads of Dems get handed their walking papers,  this should add nicely to the G&I portion of the portfolio.

The dems must be sweating it and are pulling out all stops.  Apparently some voting machines have 'Vote All Democrat' pre-selected.  Just when you thought there couldn't possibly be another new low........

Playboy

Some of the last blooms of the season.