profitable

Today was an interesting day for the stock market because people freaked out.  Sure, they freak out alot these days but what was another indicator that there may be problems (among many things) was that Intel ended up writing off about a billion dollars.  Considering that other companies have written off several times that amount of money (and some have written off several times less), I don’t get it.

The company (and I own shares and have covered calls and puts on them so they pretty much wash) is stable.  It still is doing a billion dollars in profits.  The stock market price swings are do to fear and as I have stated before, people trying to predict the future.  My reminder is this – if you are uncomfortable with stocks, get out of the market.  If you are interested in trying to predict the future, this is a tough time since nobody has any idea as to the direction of the markets.

Personally, my own thought is that it will go sideways for awhile.  It will have some big swings both up and down.  Is this good?  If you are in a cash position, it doesn’t matter.  If you are trying to do short term trading you may have a problem and you might want to look into options to mitigate any potential swings that can wipe you out.  Try settling for less profit for less risk.

We are definitely in a period where things will get weird but they can also get better.  The may be weird first and for a longer time but I am optimistic.  There are too many people trying to get things on track now and there will be over compensation in supply destruction and firing people.  That will change.  Now is a good time to get in the training that you wanted to do on the job that you really wanted.

Business will still go on as long as people have money or services or goods to trade with each other.  Let the spending in the markets continue!

Interested in any of my books?  You may want to make a stop over  here. Please click through to purchase my books and some other interesting items that actually ARE on sale. If you like poker, Heroes (the TV series), comic books, Watchmen, etc, there may be some fast links to get you to what you are looking for.

 If you are looking for a day job, part time work, suggestions for saving money or investing, please check out my book listed below.  Part of all the proceeds from the sales of that book  go  to Rett Syndrome research.  One girl is born with Rett Syndrome worldwide every fifteen minutes.   My daughter Arianna has Rett Syndrome and we are working to do all we can to make her life easier and find a cure in her lifetime.  Boys born with the Rett gene generally die at birth.

  Practical Money Making-Surviving Recession, Layoffs, Credit Problems, Generating Passive Income Streams, Working Full Time or Part Time and Retirement

Any horror stories you want to share?  Drop me a line!

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Business and Stock Market Swings

The stock market is relatively flat in keeping with the holiday slowdown.  Companies are letting people go home early to save money (which is infinitely better than letting people go period).

We’ll know in the next seven days if the market pops but so far, every indication is that there isn’t going to be a tremendous amount of excitement over the next few weeks.  So, with the Santa Effect in play for the stock market, maybe you can use the holidays to start looking at companies that are making money, will continue to make cash and were hammered along with everything else when the hedge funds had to liquidate cash.

Speaking of liquidity – check out a nice, soothing image of liquid assets to help with the peace and yuletide cheer for the season.

Look for earnings in early January in the tech sector as well as other areas where you will hear the current doom and gloom news.  It is bad, folks, but some companies still will make money.  They may only make millions instead of tens of millions and that is always better than companies that are losing money.

Check the quarterly earnings, the annual reports and if you don’t know how to read a balance sheet, read between the lines of a balance sheet and learn what footnotes REALLY mean, drop me a line.  I may do an article on the nuts and bolts of stock analysis and if pressed, maybe do an article on charting.

Rules of the sleigh ride for the upcoming year will be to try to stay employed, if unemployed, get some income stream, save money and yes, try to invest some money now.  I am bullish for the upcoming year, albeit I have no idea what may happen in short term bursts. 

If you want to try and get presents all year round, do what some of the larger institutions and hedge funds might be doing with their cash.  Research and invest carefully in options.  I talk about a relatively safe option vehicle, covered calls, in my book.  The problem with even “safe” options is that there still is a lot of downside risk unless you “collar” it with a put but that is something you have to decide you want to do.  Do you want to lose some of your profit to prevent unlimited (or limited) losses.  I think it depends on each stock and what the range of trading is as to what to do.  

Be safe, be healthy, be happy and start doing some research.

 If you are looking for a day job, part time work, suggestions for saving money or investing, please check out my book listed below.  Part of all the proceeds from the sales of that book  go  to Rett Syndrome research.  One girl is born with Rett Syndrome worldwide every fifteen minutes.   My daughter Arianna has Rett Syndrome and we are working to do all we can to make her life easier and find a cure in her lifetime.  Boys born with the Rett gene generally die at birth.

  Practical Money Making-Surviving Recession, Layoffs, Credit Problems, Generating Passive Income Streams, Working Full Time or Part Time and Retirement

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Santa Effect In Play

Is it time to start thinking about getting some milk to the cat?  By “milk” I mean money and by “cat” I mean us.

As much as I am a fan for being in cash positions for this time of the year I can easily see the stock market now being a great place for solid, performing companies with great fundamentals. You may or may not remember fundamentals, they have NOTHING to do with velocity of trading or anything else.

It has to do with the fact that the company is making money, selling whatever it is that they sell and they look to have an average to decent future.

There are some stocks out there that fit the bill and even if there is a global depression they still might make money.

There are other stocks, such as the one pictured below that aren’t even good for holding villagers to be covered in vegetables and fruit with.

As you can tell from the image, it looks like the two fellows in front are bidding on him or sizing him up.  You should be doing that now with stocks that you are looking at.  What are some things that you know that people will be buying or still need even during a depression?

Food? Clothing?  Shelter?  Some creature comforts?  Start looking at stocks in these sectors and start looking at their fundamentals.  If they have cash, a good solid cash flow and something that the public still needs, seriously start looking at investing in them, even for the short haul.  

The computer industry is also a place to at least take a peek at.  Yes, desktop computer sales have slowed as well as laptops but the new market of netbooks (smaller laptop computers that don’t have as many bells and whistles as larger laptops)  looks like people will still want their smaller, inexpensive net surfing ‘puters.

The same holds true for data security companies.  Now more than ever, people want to keep their information safe without spending a lot of money.

Don’t forget that with the newer models of cell phones that they are using faster computer chips as well and the chips have to be manufactured somewhere.   Maybe it is time for some more research as what goes into the cell phone in your purse or pocket!  I just want to get you thinking so you can do your own fact finding.  Any tips you usually get from other people tend to be worthless because you are getting the stock advice second hand!  By the time you get it, it may be too late to act on it because market conditions have changed.    It is worth taking some time to look at different ways to generate income.

Another source of income in researching stocks that are solid and not moving anywhere is writing covered calls. I touch on these in my book, Practical Money Making, and there is a ton of information on covered calls all over the Internet.   Most brokerage houses have courses on learning options as well.  If you plan on holding a stock for a long time, you may be interested in writing covered calls because it is a way to generate income on your portfolio if the stock stays within a certain trading range and doesn’t hit the price that you sold the call for or hopefully not drop into the abyss of near bankruptcy.

 As always, please do yourself a favor and do your own due diligence.  For more options information, Google  “CBOE”. The Chicago Board of Options Exchange (I think I got that right) offers courses in learning options.

For stock market fundamentals, start digging up annual reports and start learning how to read them like they were rare secrets of the universe.  You never know what secrets you may find if you actually take the time to look at an annual report or two!

After all, sometimes if you want to get milk to the cat, you need to go straight to the cow! And nothing says mooooove money into me then actually seeing what the company is doing!

It doesn’t get any better than this, eh, Mr. Whiskers?

Happy Holidays and be safe, happy, wealthy, healthy and sane!

 Practical Money Making-Surviving Recession, Layoffs, Credit Problems, Generating Passive Income Streams, Working Full Time or Part Time and Retirement

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Market for stocks or stocks for the market?

Question from a reader:”Are we at the bottom of the stock market at least from a short term point of view.”

My answer: I am not a financial expert but I can suggest that the market is oversold if that means anything.  Everybody has jumped on the “Let’s short the market or sell sell sell” bandwagon and don’t be surprised at the witching hour coming up (that is the options expiration date that should be Dec 20 this month) if the shorts and the remaining hedge funds that are trying to stay alive get bushwhacked as they use to say in the Old West. They may get squeezed and stocks may shoot up as the short stock people try to cover their investments by trying to buy the stock they sold but didn’t own.

This isn’t to say that we are out of the woods by a long shot. The question was asked based on a short term point of view.  Common sense would indicate that there are still some multi-national companies that aren’t banks, not automobile manufacturers and they have already cut back their work force. Factor in that if you are looking for bargains and are in it for the very, very, very long haul, you can find a lot of firms that are flush with cash.  Heck, they have been sitting on it waiting to do something with it.

If they have positive cash flows and reserves, they are candidates for investing, even if they drop in the short term.  The reason is that people have over-reacted and hedge funds had to sell off a lot of their “good” stocks to cover the disruptions of their old ones.

Does this mean that I am recanting on my suggestion to stay in a cash position?  No, it means that if you are inclined to look for a short term bottom, we may be seeing it with a possible slight pop before the inauguration.  Afterwards, life hasn’t changed as we know it yet and it depends on what other legislation gets passed (or doesn’t get passed) over the next one to six months.

Is inflation around the corner?  Sure, but I think that there are other pressing concerns to deal with like making sure that the average American is working and has food, clothing and shelter over his or her head (and their families).

Will more and more businesses get nationalized? I have no idea and we need to see how the deals that are coming in place actually pan out.  People will react with their pocketbooks in the stock market trying to “predict” how earnings will go.

Remember that reactions to news are factoring in changes for the long haul in the market.

The same holds true for commodity markets.  Will oil prices stay low?  Of course not, in fact the price of oil jumped today somewhat.  They will settle somewhere higher but not as high as the oil companies may want because people are adjusting to frugal lifestyles, saving gas and looking for alternative transportation. Keep that in mind if you are looking to invest in the commodities markets. 

One thing you might want to research in stocks is the subject of covered calls.  I touch on them in my book Practical Money Making as well.  If you do your own due diligence, this may be the perfect market for covered calls for some stocks, providing you aren’t greedy and again, research, research and research.  Using common sense wouldn’t hurt either.

Good luck!

  Practical Money Making-Surviving Recession, Layoffs, Credit Problems, Generating Passive Income Streams, Working Full Time or Part Time and Retirement 

 Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Stock Market Short Term Bottom?  Maybe.  Maybe a bounce and then who knows what.