Sunday, May 22, 2011

Reverse Stock Splits Explained

Reverse Stock Splits Explained


Sometimes, you hear or read terms that you know that you should understand, but you don't really take time to learn it well until circumstance forces you.

One of the stocks I own will be issuing a reverse stock split in about a month.

I understand the math behind this, but I really didn't know what this means. So I took a closer look.

For those of you who prefer to watch a video, here is Jason Frankl of FTI Consulting was interviewed on Bloomburg to help explain (a) what it is and (b) why it might be issued.


Tuesday, May 17, 2011

That Profit Is His--Not Yours!

The more I'm "playing" the stock market, the more frustrating things I notice.

The latest one involves a company that I've been eying for some time...over a year now. In fact, I even owned it for a short while...but not recently.

Lately, the stock price was falling, and it was getting near a price that would make me want to pull the trigger and buy it...a lot of it.

The good news?

Fortunately, the company released a statement that they are really profitable.

The bad news?

Friday, May 13, 2011

Stock Advice: Startup Companies: Look at Management Pay

Here is a pretty quick tip.

I've bantered about the importance of bad management vs. good management.

In good times, this might only be partially important.

In rougher times, only places with good management survive downturns--usually. I'm not looking to discuss exceptions here. I'm only setting up my point.

Without sitting beside a company's management every day, you can only speculate whether the management of a particular company is good or bad.

However, what is, at least, one major flag?

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Auto Industry Taking HUGE First Step to Recovery

I am responding to this article: GM to add or keep 4,000 jobs in US.Link
The article's title pretty much shapes this conversation. GM will be adding (or simply keeping) a lot of jobs here in the US.

That news sounds GREAT. Is this because the company is doing better? I want to take a closer look at this.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Stock Analysis Just Like Sports

Welcome back! Actually, that was a message for me.

Truthfully, I didn't think anyone was reading this...so I stopped spending my time writing posts to this blog. (Plus, I've been working on other projects.)

A thought occurred to me last night.

As I read or listen to sports predictions, it amazes me how often things replay themselves--including people's analysis of sports events as they unfold.

For basketball and hockey, it's playoff season. So there is all sorts of analysis. A lot of this analysis tends to be extreme.

Every year, teams will play best-of-seven series. The format (usually) is that the higher ranked seed gets to play their first two (2) games at home. The next two games are played at the other team's (lower seeded team's) home arena.

At some point during the playoffs, the home team wins the first two games.

To me, that seems pretty logical. They were ranked to be the "better" team, and they had the more favorable conditions of playing at their home stadium in front of friendly fans.

However, every year, you see sportswriters doom the lower seeded team, even though they have not played a home game, yet. A lot of the fans follow in the jubilation or panic--depending which team they want to win.

There are plenty of times when a team loses the first two away (non-home) games, but they eventually win the playoff series. You'd never guess that by the headlines that people write.

What do sports playoffs have to do with the stock market?