would like to thank the Academy
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Hey Long! Was asking about you earlier, hope all is well with you and Red. I am sure by now the house has been all made over, and you are living in the garage with your truck.
Yeah, Under Armour is the shizzle. I swear by their moisture wicking stuff in the hot weather, and their cold weather gear can't be beat. It is definitely pricey, but worth the money. I think the cut in consumer spending will hit them. Still love their boxers.
Typical, I had $14 weekly calls as an idea, but not ready to pull the trigger on any trades until next week. Look at it go, bet it hits $14 before 1100.
Yep, I bet you got a nasty pinched nerve up in the shoulder blade area. A GOOD massage, and some ice in that area will probably help like it did me.
Um, going to the 'massage parlor' down at the docks not what I mean. A REAL massage therapist, a sport injury one. (No happy endings!!)
WOw, BBRY just shot up all of a sudden. Of course, I am NOT in.
Wearing Under Armour undies right now as I type. They make great shirts as well. Pricey, though. In the climate we are in now, paying top dollar for necessary items may be a hard slog.
This may sound weird, but the issue may be a pinched nerve in YOUR BACK! I had messed up tingly arms from working out, and the doctor told me to ICE MY BACK near the shoulders. IT WORKED!!
BBRY on my watchlist for a nasty surprise that will kill the shorts. Can go either way, but I know people EXCITED to get the new one. May be a surprise comeback in the making.
DKS looks like it is bouncing off of the low $46 level.
LOL, yeah, they got slapped good. We actually get to see the games out here in the early morning. It is weird to sip coffee at 0730 and watch basketball!
I did get the invite, will try to get in tomorrow. The computer connection here is brutal, I am lucky to get iHub to work.
Are you icing the arm and taking care of it?
$DKS opens 8% lower, Top Trending Ticker http://stks.co/hOIo after missing on earnings estimates and lowering guidance.
Will wait until next week I think before jumping into any trades, try to figure out where this market is going.
Good morning EZ. Good thing you don't use that hand for what you used to use it for!
(You know, tennis.)
Nope, brutal lag at this time now, as everyone is on and eats up the bandwidth. The lag is really insane. Add that the Windows 8 crap, and I am losing my mind.
I see the market perked up, probably nice and green by end of day.
Back! Ugh, the internet is just slower than heck. I went with the $65 a month plan instead of the $90, and it sucks eggs. (The $90 plan also sucked eggs)
OFF TO DINNER.
I sure as heck hope to be back on before the market opens, hoping the internet is up and working.
Got a new laptop. REAL NICE. The only problem....WINDOWS 8!!
WTF? I am so damn lost.
DKS getting pounded pre-market.
Fugitive Fund Manager Stuffed Underwear With Cash, Fled
*lol* Someone needs to tell this guy that if you have a LOT of cash, you don't need to stuff your pants with anything, the women will still flock to you.*
By Edvard Pettersson - Mar 11, 2013
The German fugitive hedge fund manager who more than five years ago fled the Spanish island of Mallorca with $500,000 hidden in his underwear and luggage faces U.S. charges after his arrest at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
Florian Homm, 53, was taken into custody by Italian police at 12:30 p.m. on March 8 at the world-famous museum that houses Sandro Botticelli’s Birth of Venus and Leonardo da Vinci’s Annunciation.
The arrest, by Homm’s own account as well as that of U.S. prosecutors, followed his 2007 decision to leave behind a life of wealth, castles and “bimbos.” During his escape, he held a Liberian diplomatic passport as well as German and Irish passports, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Homm is accused in a criminal complaint filed March 6 in federal court in Los Angeles of defrauding investors in hedge funds he controlled, causing $200 million in losses. He is charged with four counts of conspiracy, wire fraud and securities fraud. He faces as long as 75 years in prison if convicted on all counts.
The founder and former chief investment officer of Absolute Capital Management Holdings Ltd. is accused of “cross trading” billions of shares of penny stocks between the company’s funds to boost the value of the otherwise illiquid securities.
The trades, through a Los Angeles-based broker-dealer that Homm co-owned, generated fees for Homm and Absolute Capital and also inflated the price of Absolute Capital’s shares, U.S. prosecutors said. Homm “dumped” his shares and resigned from Absolute Capital on Sept. 18, 2007, “in the middle of the night,” according to the U.S.
$53 Million
Homm and his co-conspirators made more than $53 million from the scheme, prosecutors said. Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles, didn’t immediately return phone and e-mail messages yesterday seeking comment on the case.
Adam Kravitz, a Miami lawyer who represents Homm in a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, declined to comment on the criminal charges.
Beginning about 2003, Absolute Capital was the investment manager for 16 funds based in the Cayman Islands, according to an affidavit by a FBI agent filed in support of the arrest warrant. Absolute Capital managed as much as $2.1 billion in September 2007, when Homm quit and ran from Mallorca, leaving behind a portfolio of hard-to-trade assets.
Homm recently published a book in German called “Rogue Financier: The Adventures of an Estranged Capitalist,” according to the affidavit.
‘Bimbos, Dogs’
In the book, Homm, who is about 6 foot, 6 inches (2 meters) tall, wrote that he had “$500,000 stashed in my underwear, my briefcase and my cigar box,” when he left Palma de Mallorca on a private plane Sept. 18, 2007. His “mule and friend Giorgio” was carrying another $700,000, according to the translation in the affidavit.
“As the jet climbed I was profoundly unsettled, my mind in a dense fog,” Homm said in the book, according to the court filing. “I was breaking all connections to my former existence: colleagues, clients, acquaintances, friends, bimbos, dogs, family and children, and annihilating my fast fortune in the process.”
MORE - http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2013-03-08/fugitive-hedge-fund-manager-homm-arrested-at-gallery.html
BlackBerry: Is A Major Short Squeeze Coming? http://stks.co/cMyh
$BBRY
Hmmm...under $13 now. May be worth a shot at some lotto calls again if ti DOES post really good sales figures at end of month. Will watch.
The Stock Market is Not the Economy. Don't Trade As If It Is. http://stks.co/hOHg
Retail been taking a hit recently I see....
Credit Agricole Downgrades Apple ($AAPL) to Outperform http://stks.co/fOFT
Stock futures slip; budget worries move into focus
U.S. stock-index futures on Monday slipped, with upside momentum in the wake of last week’s push to a record by the Dow blunted by disappointing weekend data out of China and the continued struggle to come up with a U.S. budget compromise.
By William L. Watts
FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) — U.S. stock-index futures slipped on Monday, with upside momentum in the wake of last week’s rally to a nominal record by the Dow blunted by disappointing weekend data out of China and a renewed focus on Washington’s struggle to come up with a budget compromise.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 15 points, or 0.1%, to 14,298, while S&P 500 Index futures declined 2.2 points, or 0.1%, to 1,542.30.
Nasdaq 100 futures lost 5.25 points, or 0.2%, to 2,792.50.
“Businesses seem to be paying little attention to the battles in Washington. Still, the economic data will start facing a tougher test in March and April when the automatic spending cuts start to take effect and when there will be layoffs in the defense industry and among civilian contractors to the U.S. government,” wrote strategists at futures broker R.J. O’Brien in Chicago.
Fiscal headwinds will make it more difficult for the U.S. economy to gain momentum, they said.
The heads of the House and Senate budget committees this week will introduce dueling budget resolutions. Tens of billions of dollars in automatic spending cuts began to take hold after lawmakers and the White House failed to reach a deal before March 1. Unless a short-term funding bill is passed by March 27, the government could face a partial shutdown.
The budget battle didn’t dent equities last week. The Dow set a string of record closing highs in recent sessions, while the S&P 500 Index ended Friday at 1,551.18, just 14 points from its record. See: Stocks up for week; S&P 500 near record.
Meanwhile, money continues to flow into exchange-traded products that track the S&P 500, a sign retail investors may be regaining confidence. See: Investors flock to S&P 500 ETFs as record beckons.
Asian stocks traded mostly higher Monday, with Tokyo outperforming the rest of the region while Shanghai and Hong Kong saw modest pressure after the Chinese data. See: Asia stocks mostly higher, Japan leads.
European stocks traded lower. Ratings firm Fitch late Friday cut Italy’s credit rating one notch to BBB-plus, citing uncertainty in the wake of last month’s inconclusive parliamentary elections. See: Italian bond yields edge higher after downgrade.
MORE - http://stream.marketwatch.com/story/markets/SS-4-4/SS-4-25212/
Wow, futures are red. That won't last long I am sure, as the Fed has said: NO MORE DIPS IN THE MARKET EVER!!
All I got to say is....SYRACUSE!!
I did such a great job last time, lol. Will sign up again and TRY to do better.
What? Hidden weaknesses in the jobs report!!?? *gasp* I thought all was good in the world, need to keep the market going...DOW 30k by end of year!
Sorry, one of those days.
Hello Stufferoo. Looks like we may get RAIN again out here today. I hope so, bring the dust down a bit, before it gets all hot and crazy.
Just back from some logistics meetings to move a bunch of equipment. Will get caught up and start posting away.
Don't Let The Rally Fool You: Equities Surge Masks Real Fragilities - Barclays http://stks.co/bN2v
John Murphy Explains Intermarket Analysis http://stks.co/s4u5
An Investors Guide To X-treme Monetary and Fiscal Conditions http://stks.co/eN7I
How US Data Will Impact USD This Week: Best Strategy To Trade It - Barclays http://stks.co/iO7G
Upcoming FDA approval for March 2013: $ZGNX, $THRX, $GSK, $BMY, $AEZS, $ARIA, $ZIOP, $INO, $ALIM
Get your lotto tickets!!
Rising Interest Rates May Help Housing and Economy http://stks.co/bN2q
Dollar near highs vs yen on jobs, Asian shares steady
Sun, Mar 10 2013
By Chikako Mogi
TOKYO (Reuters) - The dollar held near multi-year highs against the yen on Monday after surprisingly strong U.S. labor data, but demand for riskier assets was curbed by a mixed bag of economic data from China painted a patchy economic recovery in the world's second-largest economy.
Commodities prices were caught between growing optimism about more solid demand as the global economy improves and the strengthening dollar which makes dollar-denominated commodities expensive for non-dollar holders.
The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS held steady but were weighed by a 0.1 percent drop in South Korean shares .KS11 and a 0.3 percent decline in Shanghai shares .SSEC.
Demand for riskier assets was curbed by caution after a mixed bag of data from China over the weekend painted a patchy economic recovery in the world's second-largest economy and top consumer for many commodities. The data signaled a looming dilemma for policymakers, as inflation stood at a 10-month high in February while factory output and consumer spending were weaker than forecast.
"That's what people are trying to marry up, they've seen the Chinese data over the weekend, and it's been a little bit below their expectations and so miners aren't doing very well and the rest of the stocks seem to be pretty patchy at the moment," said Credit Suisse equity strategist Damien Boey of Australian stocks.
Australian shares rose 0.4 percent in choppy trade as weak iron ore prices hit miners while financials stocks were up on the back of further gains on Wall Street. The commodity-linked Australian dollar was down 0.1 percent to $1.0221.
In South Korea, investors were jittery amid intensifying tensions with North Korea.
The South Korean won fell as much as 1.1 percent for its biggest daily decline since January 28 to a low of 1,102.8 against the dollar, its weakest level since October 25, 2012.
North Korea has cut off a Red Cross hotline with South Korea as it escalates its war of words against Seoul and Washington in response to a military drill in the South and U.N. sanctions imposed for its recent nuclear test.
FUNDAMENTALS BOOST DOLLAR
The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI posted its fourth consecutive intraday and closing record highs on Friday and the FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index of top European shares hit a 4-1/2-year peak after U.S. nonfarm payrolls jumped by 236,000 jobs last month, above a 160,000 gain forecast. The unemployment rate fell to a four-year low of 7.7 percent from 7.9 percent.
The data was unlikely to prompt the Federal Reserve to change its policy settings anytime soon as the U.S. central bank has said it will keep its near-zero rate stance until the unemployment rate falls to 6.5 percent, as long as inflation does not threaten to top 2.5 percent.
"As both Europe and Japan look to continue with easy monetary policy, improving economic indicators in the United States make it likely that the U.S. would be the first to depart from global accommodative conditions, putting upward pressures on yields and supporting the dollar," a senior official at a Japanese institutional investor said.
"It's too early yet to say the current dollar buying based on solid U.S. fundamentals is sustainable. Effects from U.S. spending cuts may start to weigh on growth later on and undermine the dollar," he said.
The dollar was up 0.2 percent against the yen at 96.18, near Friday's peak of 96.60 yen hit after the U.S. jobs data, its highest since August 2009. The euro was also trading up 0.2 percent at 125 yen but off a high of 125.98 yen touched on Friday.
"Much of the recent move in the U.S. dollar is a reflection of more fundamental money flows out of the yen and out of the euro concurrently, and that is enough of an effect -- a truly massive effect -- to nudge the dollar higher," said Richard Hastings, macro strategist at Global Hunter Securities.
"This is of course a big change from forex conditions years ago."
The yen's slide bolstered Japanese equities, with the Nikkei stock average .N225 gaining 0.9 percent to a fresh 4-1/2-year high. .T
Currency speculators boosted their bets in favor of the U.S. dollar in the latest week to the highest in over seven months, while also raising short positions in most other major currencies, such as the yen, the euro and sterling, data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed on Friday.
U.S. crude was down 0.3 percent at $91.68 a barrel while Brent fell 0.4 percent to $110.43. <O/R>
London copper inched up 0.3 percent to $7,761 a metric ton.
(Additional reporting by Thuy Ong and Gyles Beckford in Sydney; Editing by Eric Meijer and Shri Navaratnam)
Wow, just reading the jobs data stuff that came out on Friday. 7.7 percent uneployment now. WAHOO! We are doing great, good for another thousand points on the DOW. I find it interesting, in that:
1. Most of the gys here athat are unemployed are finding it VERY difficult ot get a REAL job. PLENTY of 'jobs' out there, but they are part time gigs. (To get around the Obabmacare crap?)
2. Are the government employees that are getting a furlough to now be considered part time? DOes their 20% pay cut count as a 'good' thing?
3. Did you see the amount of people with 2nd jobs? Was that part of the count?
I guess it is hard for me, being out here, but the lamestream press is saying things like 'Expanding economy' and 'better data' yet I keep seeing a LOT of crappy retail numbers here and around the world. Is it really getting better out there?
China Stock Index Drops for Third Day in Economic Data Concerns
By Bloomberg News - Mar 10, 2013
China’s benchmark stock index fell, heading for its longest losing streak in three months, as the country’s industrial output had the weakest start to a year since 2009 and lending and retail sales growth slowed.
Industrial Bank Co. led lenders lower after the nation’s new loans last month trailed analyst estimates. Liquor maker Sichuan Swellfun Co. dropped among consumer companies after the country’s retail sales growth in the first two months was the smallest for that period since 2004. China Vanke Co. (000002) and Poly Real Estate Group Co. advanced at least 1 percent as property sales jumped this year.
“The economic recovery is weaker than expected,” said Wang Zheng, Shanghai-based chief investment officer at Jingxi Investment Management Co., which manages $120 million. “Investors are worried that stocks may already have moved ahead of fundamentals.”
The Shanghai Composite Index (SHCOMP) dropped 0.2 percent to 2,313.04 at the 11:30 a.m. local-time break, trimming its gain since last year’s Dec. 3 low to 18 percent. The CSI 300 Index (SHSZ300) declined 0.3 percent to 2,598.50. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index (HSCEI) added 0.3 percent in Hong Kong. The Bloomberg China-US 55 Index (CH55BN) rose 1 percent in New York on March 8.
The Shanghai index retreated 1.7 percent last week on concerns the government will tighten monetary policy and regulators will allow the resumption of initial public offerings.
Industrial production climbed 9.9 percent in the first two months and retail sales rose 12.3 percent, the statistics bureau said over the weekend, trailing economists’ estimates. New local-currency loans in February fell to 620 billion yuan ($99.6 billion), the People’s Bank of China said, less than the estimates of 27 out of 28 analysts in a Bloomberg News survey.
Yeah, that is big news out here. Really don't understand why these people are still crazy out here. WE ARE LEAVING!! They would be smart to just lay low and let us go. Has been a very mild winter, so I am sure they are going to just drive me to drinking over the next few months.
I still have a bunch of Gurkhas, still a good smoke. I packed a bunch of Tabak Especials with me on the trip, the Pinar Del Rio 5 packs sampler (The Obsidian was in it, AWESOME!) and a few Rocky Patels. After I ran out of my stash, had to hit up the foreign PX and get some Cubans. They were dry as heck, and I din't have my humidor, so I suffered, lol. One of the first things I did when I got back was get my humidor back in shape, rotate my cigars, and suck down a 5 Vegas.
LOL, I'll say! I packed about a week of cigars with me, which lasted 5 days. Luckily they sell Cubans out where I was, a foreign run base that had a nice selection of smokes. I smoked a lot of MonteCristos and Cohibas.