money

July, 2012  Q&A

Q: Are you in favor of all the stimulus, bailout, and entitlement spending?

A: Sure, how do you expect a federal government to operate with only 2 million employees and a $3.5 trillion budget?

A: Sure, we'll all be better off with the government taking care of us.

A: Sure, I always wanted to learn to speak Chinese.

~Alfred E. Neuman
The Professional Opinion


None this month - taking a subscription vacation.



Buy Recommendations

From the Compost Bin:  According to Suze, another Doomsday Prophet,  buy no more than 15% gold, buy TIPS, ETFs and Dividend paying stocks.

Hey Suze!  How's those TIPS and Gold working out for you???

 
 Sharp Shinned
A Sharp-Shinned Hawk (I think) -  Minden NV
Personal Portfolio
YTD
Hopeless
The supreme court in a truly bizarre move, failed to drive a stake through the heart of teleprompter care.  If the republican party ever needed a unifying theme for the next six months, this is it.  On the other hand since this thing is now a tax instead of commerce let's see the libs go all out in trying to levy more taxes in the months prior to the elections. I think it would be guaranteed to help them with their re-election campaigns.
Finance


Personal Opinion

Not a lot to talk about this month although it's hard not to notice that quality dividend paying stocks are doing quite well and I think they are symptomatic of the times we are living in.  By the way, purchase an annuity and forget the dividend.

I didn't do much at all, other than to do some buying in commodities when the markets regularly tanked on euro news, and then sell into the latest upbeat rumors. I traded Amazon a couple times using the same methodology and in the end, came out with a 15+% gain for the year so far.

Boy, do we need a change in leadership...............

Electronic Arts Revisited for the Fourth Month  (Still Groaning)

EA

EA continues to fully live up to my lowest expectations. Of course, the market's not helping much either.  

This is one you do not want to chase down, averaging  lower and lower.  

It's also one that usually manages a miraculous turnaround just about the time you decide to sell.  

My take......wait an see if a stake gets driven through the heart of obamacare.  

If it does, a lot of uncertainty will leave the market  and the relief may manifest itself  by purchasing those video games people wanted but couldn't justify at the time.

If that piece of &&*# legislation is ruled constitutional,  people will probably buy more games anyway, along with massive quantities of adult beverages as the first line of defense against the tax hikes coming down the road in 2013

It's a win-win situation either way...............I think.................
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2013 -The Coming Telepromptolypse of Economy Killing Taxes - Do you have a backup plan?

Taxes

One thing I would be thinking about is having a backup plan as it pertains to financial assets in this economy.  The worst case scenario would be another 4 years of the teleprompter , telepromptercare gets upheld and tax hell is allowed to descend in 2013.  It's not that far away and if I were you, I would be at least inventorying what you have and looking at it from the perspective of how those assets would hold up in a rapidly deteriorating economy.

The calculations are out and if our government behaves as is par for the course for elected officials anymore, doing nothing to fix the coming tax hell will result in a loss of 3.5-4.5% GDP.  

In other words, it will be an economy  killer and those who have been persistently crying wolf may finally get it right.   

I for the most part am a glass is half full sort of person  but it if nothing good happens over these next six months,  I will be all for preservation of capital.


Question from JimOCYA:   What do you think is  Better - Buying and Selling at Market or a Fixed Price?

Wow! I think this must make four people who actually peruse these pages on occasion.  I guess I'd better answer it.

I personally buy and sell most stocks at market.  I don't really care if I could have bought for a few cents cheaper or sold for a couple cents more. I care more about buying when I want to buy and selling when I want to sell.

Now if you are dealing with small orders, price becomes more important and I can see setting limit orders in some cases.

The one major exception to this is the volatile commodity stocks, oil in particular. 

I like to trade in and out of HollyFrontier and Suncor and usually always set a limit price on the sell order.  The buy order.....it depends.

With stocks like these, what you see as the bid price and what you get at market can differ substantially. It is best to consider limit orders on the more volatile stocks.


PITA
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.

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 1664.2 1616.9 1604.2
Recession  60% Chance Nope! Nope! Nope! Nope! Nope! Nope!
TIPS Current 5yr Yield Home Run - Maybe 0.95% 0.90% -.126% .125% -1.03% -1.00%

June comment:  Boy, Suze's TIPS suggestion is working out real well, isn't it.  A negative yield means people are actually buying these things at a loss in return for safety.  If I was in Euroland, that might make some sense.  That gold play is working out really well too, isn't it.
Swainson's?

An enhanced photo of a Swainsons (?) Hawk  - Stillwater Preserve - Fallon, NV.