On Friday, as I predicted, the market went up. I am not patting myself on the back (well, not too hard), but I had a little help with foreign national banks lowering their prime rates and the upcoming bailout of the auto industry becoming more of a sure thing. I know we aren’t suppose to call it a bailout because, hopefully, there will be loans involved and we as taxpayers won’t be tagged with the bill at the end of dinner like a bad date (for those of you who only hook up and don’t date, that is where two people go out and they actually do something socially other than connect immediately for intimate relations). From the looks of the lecherous waiter and the gal having too much fun with her server looks like good times are happening. Or at least dorky times. The intimate relations come later on.
Hopefully our financial intimate relations will continue on Monday and my guess is through the New Year it will be hovering as a status quo with investments in and out of the stock market being the usual end of the year portfolio adjustments. Money will not only change hands many times but there may be talk of a particular industry or another “doomed” or “recovering”.
The truth is the stock market will probably trade overall in the same zones it has between now and the next few months even with all the bailout talk and money infusion hitting the markets. Money still has to move from the banks into the hands of the general public (it is albeit slowly) and inventory has to start moving off of car lots and out of the Long Beach harbor parking lot.
For those of you who don’t know or forgot, there are a lot of new cars that came into America that are sitting in Long Beach because the dealerships that ordered the cars months before went out of business. I suspect that there will be some great car deals if people can get financing over the next few weeks and into the next few months.
If you lost money on Friday, don’t fret, there is plenty of opportunity and staying in cash right now isn’t a bad idea. I am inclined though to continue my spiel about researching fundamentals.
Have you noticed that some stocks are trading below their actual worth? Seriously, do some research on some of the fallen blue chips and you might find some great bargains. Will they have problems with earnings? Sure they will but if the fundamentals of the firm are good, who cares. Money coming in, even if it is several percentage points lower than previous years is still money coming in.
There are too many companies that are bleeding cash and investors still think they are the greatest thing. If they are close to hitting whatever it is they are burning cash on, great. If not, you should take a moment and ask yourself with so many other companies out there that are making money, why stick around?
Like a lover totally smitten with someone, sometimes you have to let go of your infatuation and move on.
Here is hoping that you continue to have better times, be healthy, wealthy, happy and wise and have a great holiday!
If you like my advice, want some ideas and suggestions about getting extra work, surviving the hard times we are in, please check out my book listed below. There are some good tips on getting yourself settled and back on track financially in this rocky times. Part of all book sales go to research a cure for Rett Syndrome as well.
Kim Isaac Greenblatt
Did you make money on Friday?