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Lazarus: Almost moved to San Anselmo. Love that town, except for the traffic on Sir Francis. I have some friends in San Geronimo, really nice place. Do you still live there?
Of course whatever I would have bought 5 years ago for 1 million would now be worth a bit more <g>. I just could not stomach the idea of a very large mortgage.
Echos, thanks I never check my signature to see if it worked. The link snagged on the bold character format code and choked. All is well in skeleton land now!
Len: Go down to the van and write the license plate number down. If they arrest you, then you will know for sure! Either that or they may have some stuff to sell you. Not that you would be a buyer of course!
Len: They will not knock on your door, it is to cold for them to go inside. Stand outside your building and they will come.
LOL
echos: That story has no meat to it! (g). I wonder if IHUB has received government requests yet to turn over the subject logs of all the anti government posts on it.
Is this the straw that breaks our backs?
Stocks Barely Mixed As Yield Curve Inverts
Wednesday January 25, 1:19 pm ET
By Ellen Simon, AP Business Writer
Stocks Barely Mixed As Yield Curve Inverts, Despite Mergers and Earnings News
NEW YORK (AP) -- Rising short-term bond yields flummoxed Wall Street Wednesday, leaving stocks barely mixed despite positive earnings news, two significant merger deals and a drop in oil prices.
In bonds, the yield curve inverted, meaning some short-term bonds traded at higher yields than longer-term maturities. Such inversions have traditionally been a warning sign of recession. Both the Standard & Poor's 500 and the Nasdaq composite drooped in afternoon trading.
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Wall Street started the session higher and then retreated despite The Walt Disney Co.'s long-awaited acquisition of Pixar Animation Studios Inc. and Boston Scientific Corp.'s winning bid for Guidant Corp. Xerox Corp. and others reported strong profits. And crude oil futures fell, dropping $1.36 a barrel to $65.70 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
In early afternoon trading, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 19.37, or 0.18 percent, to 10,731.59.
Broader stock indicators were barely mixed. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 0.31, or 0.02 percent, to 1,267.17 and the Nasdaq composite index fell 1.09, or 0.05 percent, to 2,264.16.
Bonds fell as stocks rose, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury note rising to 4.45 percent from 4.39 percent late Tuesday. The dollar rose against other major currencies; gold prices also climbed.
In economic news, the National Association of Realtors said existing home sales dropped 5.7 percent in December to 6.6 million units. Economists had expected sales to come in at an annualized rate of 6.87 million, down from 6.97 million in November.
But mergers and earnings drove trading. Disney fell 34 cents to $25.65 after agreeing to acquire Pixar for $7.4 billion in stock. The deal will make Steve Jobs, Pixar's chief executive, the single largest shareholder of Disney stock, and he will have a seat on Disney's board. Pixar climbed 94 cents to $58.51.
Boston Scientific fell 51 cents to $23.49 after winning the battle for medical device maker Guidant Corp. with a $27.2 billion cash-and-stock deal that trumped a lower bid by Johnson & Johnson. Guidant fell $1.63 to $75.15, while Johnson & Johnson fell 49 cents to $58.87.
In earnings news, Xerox Corp. reported an 18 percent jump in fourth-quarter profits, but revenues dropped 2 percent and the stock slipped 30 cents to $14.16.
Drugmaker Bristol Myers Squibb Co. rose 35 cents to $21.68 after its quarterly profit beat Wall Street expectations by 3 cents per share despite slipping sales due to generic competition on a growing number of products.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers by roughly 8 to 7 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 811.05 million shares, compared with 790.76 million traded at the same point on Tuesday.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 2.96, or 0.41 percent, to 715.06.
Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 0.01 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 gained 1.25 percent, Germany's DAX index surged 1.74 percent, and France's CAC-40 gained 0.90 percent.
New York Stock Exchange: http://www.nyse.com
Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com
KLEGG ELECTRONCS NEW (KLGE.PK): Received a $300,000.00 pump piece via snail mail. Buyer Beware. These kind of deals usually run hard and then die a quick death.
Just found this board. Good Idea... Here are some funds from Bob Brinker that might be of interest, all no load...
bptrx
fairx
gabax
merdx
tceix
muhlx
snxfx
vcsix
ryocx
dodfx
vexmx
naesx
vtsmx
vfinx
vbigx
visvx
He loves Vanguard, low expenses. I mostly use ETF's now, but I still love the Vanguard Health Care Fund VGHCX, has been a long term winner!
ot: Grimreaper: Already know ETRADE and have stayed away. Have been a Schwab customer for years and they keep changing my commission structure every 3 months if I don't trade enough. I told them I was leaving unless they made me a consistent deal and have yet to hear back. I guess Chuck Schwab does not care. LOL
OT: MSGI, thanks for the Fidelity info. I would have PM'ed you except your recent post on the value of the premium membership talked me out of my new years resolution to sign up. I guess I will have to do my other resolution, drink more Martinis. LOL
OT: thanks bull....
OT: Fidelity Trading.... anyone have experience with Fidelity Active Trader? Good? Bad?
TIA
OT Bobwins: Computer, did those parts fall off the back of a truck? LOL ... Looking at Newegg prices I come up with about $1300.00, did I mess up? Where did you buy your parts?
Thanks again. I actually want a new Imac with Intel chipset when and if someone posts a real world way to boot up Win XP.
OT BOBWINS: How about posting the details of what you built. I have been planning to do this for awhile and need help deciding.,
TIA
The last round of funding EKCS did was at $1.00 . The stock ran to $3.20, the pattern continues. Why invest and risk $1.15 a share if you are not going to see at least a double? Company is finally ready to start making real money.
One of the investors is:
Appointment of Agent. The Secured Parties hereby appoint Bluegrass
Growth Fund Partners, LLC ("Bluegrass") to act as their agent ("Agent") for
purposes of exercising any and all rights and remedies of the Secured Parties
hereunder. Such appointment shall continue until revoked in writing by a
Majority in Interest, at which time a Majority in Interest shall appoint a new
Agent; provided, that the Bluegrass may not be removed as Agent unless Bluegrass
shall then hold less than $25,000 principal amount of Debentures.
SVL due diligence info: I received the following information from Schwab regarding the appearance and quick removal of equity ratings for SVL.
Silverleaf Resorts had a Schwab Equity Rating for only two weeks
(beginning 12/19/05 and ending 1/2/06, counting the second weekend).
The reason is related to the way the universe of stocks rated by Schwab
Equity Ratings is determined. As you know, we rate approximately 3,200
stocks, based on their market capitalizations (market price as of each
Friday, times shares outstanding as of the most recently reported fiscal
quarter). Stocks whose market capitalizations fall below the lowest of
the top 3,200 aren't rated - and that's what happened to SVL. For those
two weeks, its market caps were above the limit ($3.75/share on 12/13/05
times 36.96 million shares outstanding, or $138.6 million, and
$4.08/share on 12/23/05, again times 36.96 million shares, or $150.8
million). But on Friday, December 30, SVL's closing price of $3.26
times the 36.96 million shares outstanding caused its market cap to fall
to $120.5 million - but the smallest market cap of our rated stocks that
week was $133.7 million.
I've noticed that SVL's price seems fairly volatile, so there's a chance
that it could be rated again in the future. But any stock with a market
capitalization this small always runs the risk that it won't be rated
for one or more weeks because it's simply too small.
ot: rainperson: LOL, I finished 74th, pretty, pretty Baaad. I have no excuses, the contest was what it was. I sucked, you sucked more. Act like a gentlemen, they do have those over in Europe me thinks.
New financing... would have liked to see them self fund expansion with some cash flow. Obviously they can't do that yet. If things hold true to past history, someone is going to run this stock up so the new investors can unload.
Electronic Control Security Raises $1.0 Million to Fund its Continuing Expansion, Build Out its Product Line and to Fully Repay Bank Loan; Convertible Debt Financing and Warrant Package Closed at Premium Above Share Price
1/17/2006 11:03:01 AM
CLIFTON, N.J., Jan 17, 2006 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Electronic Control Security Inc. (EKCS), a leading integrated security provider and manufacturer of perimeter security systems, announced today that it closed a $1.0 million financing.
Under the terms of the financing, ECSI is issuing to institutional investors $1.0 million in principal amount of senior secured convertible debentures maturing on January 11, 2009 with interest payable at the greater of 8% per annum or the prime rate for the applicable interest period plus 2.5%. The debentures are convertible into common stock at a conversion price of $1.15 per share which is more than 10% higher than the closing price of ECSI on the day the funding closed. ECSI is also issuing common stock warrants to the investors to purchase up to 434,783 shares of common stock of ECSI, exercisable through January 11, 2009 at an exercise price of $2.00 per share - nearly double the closing price of ECSI shares on the day the funding closed. The debenture and warrant contain anti-dilution provisions.
Arthur Barchenko, President of ECSI, commented, "This funding is a significant event for the company and for our shareholders. It was done at a premium to our current share price, which demonstrates the confidence that these institutional investors have in our outlook. We intend to use the funds raised to facilitate the significant growth we have been achieving, to expand our product line to meet anticipated demand, and to fully repay our existing bank term loan."
The financing was completed through a private placement to four accredited investors and is exempt from registration pursuant to Section 4(2) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. For one year following the effectiveness of the resale registration statement, the holders of the debentures have the right to participate in ECSI's future equity or equity-linked financings. In connection with the financing, ECSI will pay fees to its placement agents aggregating $72,500 and will issue warrants to them to purchase up to 121,739 shares of ECSI's common stock. ECSI's current report on Form 8-K related to the financing contains more detailed information regarding the terms of the financing.
skeptical: not sure specifically what book you want. try this link for a good selection of books that might cover it.
http://www.bobbrinker.com/books.asp
AN AMERICAN airstrike targeting Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Al-Qaeda mastermind, was prompted by “wrong information” and killed Pakistani villagers including five women and five children, according to senior Pakistani officials.
If I was a citizen of Pakistan, I would be pretty pissed off at the good old USA. We have zero sensitivity to the rest of the world. No wonder they hate us.
lazurus: I am not a commercial lender, but your post does contain some generalizations that may not apply everywhere. For example, every state is different. Although I think they recently changed the rules, Florida was a haven for CEO's who were in trouble and wanted to shelter large amounts of cash. They would buy mega million dollar homes and protect them in bankruptcy.
Also why would all multi unit apartment loans be government backed?
Your comment about Trump was right on. That sleezeball played the banks like a fiddle. They had to keep him afloat or they would suffer with him.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1501657
Some might want to move to Sarasota FL now! I am real glad I left. What a crap place to live.
Crazytrader: You came up with a good plan for Son of Lazarus, except your example is flawed.
1. You were young and financially undisciplined. Maybe his son is not.
2. You most likely bragged to your relatives how big a real estate genius you were and flush with cash, they took note.
3. You loaned money, unsecured to relatives, big no no.
If I have the cash, I pay for real estate without borrowing. However, I can and do restrain my spending within my means. I only loan money if it makes economic sense and I have my OUT strategy.
Of course I am not 19 anymore, although I was more conservative at 19 then now.
WMCO: Pre 14A out, includes the following; To approve an amendment to the Company’s Certificate of Incorporation, as amended, so as to effect a reverse stock split of the Company’s Common Stock at a ratio of one-for-six (1 for 6), provide for the cash-out of fractional shares, and reduce the number of authorized shares of the Company’s Common Stock in proportion to the reverse split;
Any thoughts?
UBSS purchased the Schwab Market Making Operation awhile back. They just starting using the UBSS symbol on OTCBB stocks.
ps - looks like they are phasing in on the stocks.
Drink 1 strong martini and these are really funny!
These are from a book called ' Disorder in the American Courts', and are things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down and now published by court reporters who had the torment of staying calm while
these exchanges were taking place!
ATTORNEY: Are you sexually active?
WITNESS: No, I just lie there.
________________________________
ATTORNEY: What is your date of birth?
WITNESS: July 18th.
ATTORNEY: What year?
WITNESS: Every year.
_____________________________________
ATTORNEY: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact?
WITNESS: Gucci sweats and Reeboks.
>___________________________________________________________
ATTORNEY: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And in what ways does it affect your memory?
WITNESS: I forget.
ATTORNEY: You forget? Can you give us an example of something you forgot?
>_____________________________________
ATTORNEY: How old is your son, the one living with you?
WITNESS: Thirty-eight or thirty-five, I can't remember which.
ATTORNEY: How long has he lived with you?
WITNESS: Forty-five years.
____________________________________
ATTORNEY: What was the first thing your husband said to you that morning?
WITNESS: He said, "Where am I, Cathy?"
ATTORNEY: And why did that upset you?
WITNESS: My name is Susan.
>______________________________________
ATTORNEY: Do you know if your daughter has ever been involved in voodoo?
WITNESS: We both do.
ATTORNEY: Voodoo?
WITNESS: We do.
ATTORNEY: You do?
WITNESS: Yes, voodoo.
>______________________________________
ATTORNEY: Now doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn't know about it until the next morning?
WITNESS: Did you actually pass the bar exam?
>___________________________________
ATTORNEY: The youngest son, the twenty-year-old, how old is he?
WITNESS: Uh, he's twenty-one.
________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Were you present when your picture was taken?
WITNESS: Would you repeat the question?
>______________________________________
ATTORNEY: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And what were you doing at that time?
WITNESS: Uh....
>______________________________________
ATTORNEY: She had three children, right?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: How many were boys?
WITNESS: None.
ATTORNEY: Were there any girls?
>______________________________________
ATTORNEY: How was your first marriage terminated?
WITNESS: By death.
ATTORNEY: And by whose death was it terminated?
>______________________________________
ATTORNEY: Can you describe the individual?
WITNESS: He was about medium height and had a beard.
ATTORNEY: Was this a male or a female?
>______________________________________
ATTORNEY: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney?
WITNESS: No, this is how I dress when I go to work.
>______________________________________
ATTORNEY: Doctor, how many of your autopsies have you performed on dead people?
WITNESS: All my autopsies are performed on dead people.
______________________________________
ATTORNEY: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to?
WITNESS: Oral.
______________________________________
ATTORNEY: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
WITNESS: The autopsy started around 8:30 p.m.
ATTORNEY: And Mr. Denton was dead at the time?
WITNESS: No, he was sitting on the table wondering why I was doing an autopsy on him!
>______________________________________
ATTORNEY: Are you qualified to give a urine sample?
WITNESS: Huh?
>______________________________________
ATTORNEY: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for blood pressure?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for breathing?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
WITNESS: Because his brain was sitting in a jar on my desk.
ATTORNEY: But nevertheless could the patient have still been alive?
WITNESS: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law
amhi.ob bobwins: I looked at this company several months ago when you mentioned it. I talked with my Chiropractor about the concept of a company acquiring Chiro Clinics and his thought was that marginal clinics being run by chiropractors would not fare any better if they were owned by a larger company and still managed by the same owner.
Since he has my neck in his hands, I decided that he knows all!
yield, I moved away from lovely Florida in 2005. I was on BC/BS with a 500 deductible and insurance was 500/month for a family plan. I doubt it would be more than $600 - $650 now.
You can crunch the numbers to see if higher deductible works for your situation, but of course the Insurance company has a team of (Lentinmen Like Creatures) crunching numbers against you. Hard to go up against that! LOL
A redneck family from the hills was visiting the city and they were in a mall for the first time in their life.
The father and son were strolling around while the wife shopped. They were amazed by almost everything they saw, but especially by two shiny, silver walls that could move apart and then slide back together again.
The boy asked, "Paw, What's 'at?" The father (never having seen an elevator) responded, "Son, I dunno. I ain't never seen anything like that in my entire life, I ain't got no idea'r what it is." While the boy and his father were watching with amazement, a fat old lady in a wheel chair rolled up to the moving walls and pressed
a button. The walls opened and the lady rolled between them into a small room. The walls closed and the boy and his father watched the small circular numbers above the walls light up sequentially. They continued to watch until it reached the last number and then the numbers began to light in the reverse order. Then the walls
opened up again and a gorgeous, voluptuous 24-year-old blonde woman stepped out.
The father, not taking his eyes off the young woman, said quietly to his Son, "Boy, go git yo Momma...."
yield: How old are you? I have a high deductible plan for my wife and kids = $130/month. My insurance is $330/month and sucks. They just raised rates and deductibles and it does not kick in for a few grand worth of expenses. But as you can see when combined it is $460/month.
I self insure the small stuff and for the most part nobody goes to doctors very often. It is in place for any big hits.
My only big expenses beside health insurance is all discretionary stuff like preschool, tennis lessons, drum lessons...etc.
BZNT: pinksheet, nice spread 1.01 - 10.01, LOL
ekcs: last 3 Q's were loss,profit,profit equalling a net loss for the 3 Q's. Is it ok for contest or not?
If you say no, then it will go up!
len: You said "The ACLU would be wasting their time. The law is perfectly clear. In states that have "right to work", you can bring someone into your office, say "I don't like the color of your shirt. I don't like the way you pronounce 'February'. I don't like your wife's mother's sister's daughter. And, I especially don't like the temperature today. Therefore, you are fired. Get out!"
"
While I agree with you in part, laws get changed when people sue/protest/fight, etc. to change them. ACLU has wasted lots of time on various issues, they could get somewhere on "at will" when you consider that most people are employees. If they understood the issue on how easy it is for them to be fired, I would expect that the masses would want change.
I have fired people for some strange things, and it never came back and hurt me. Gotta love "at will".
btw - they all deserved to be fired! LOL
len:
In fact, IMO, it will be so successful as a policy that you will see other large corporations adopt it and someday, it may well be the de facto law of the land.
Wait for the ACLU lawsuits protecting "smokers right to die" .
Some people would take up smoking just to be anti government.
Len: Smoking, I hate it. Can't be in the same room with a smoker, can't walk behind a smoker unless the wind is blowing the other way.
Love the policy, as a former employer I love that you can tell your employees that they must abide by rules that will keep them healthy and keep insurance premiums down and attendance up.
However, working around chemicals in a company like Scott's miracle-gro can't be very good for your health either. I would not work for a fertilizer company unless the alternative was a mining company. I still feed bad for those poor guys and they way they died.
10bagger: You said I believe that the next session of congress will be a stale mate with no real legislation getting done.
I always thought that Gridlock was to wall streets liking. What is different this time? Since Bush can't veto a spending bill, no new bills means he will not be allowing more spending. That is good news.
Delay twisting in the wind, maybe it will wipe that bs smile off of his face. Maybe he will have to go back to bug extermination.
SVL : On 12/19 I posted that schwab started SVL with a B rating, checked again today and schwab no longer rates SVL. Weird.... the run up to 4 and down to 3 went along with this action.
OT : Fib Timers newsletter...
S&P 500 Index (SPX) Chart Analysis
Last week we wrote:
"...Right now the markets are over-sold and the odds for a rally are good. If we are correct about being at the beginning of a bullish 5 Wave advance, we should see higher prices over the coming months. On December 14th, the SPX closed at 1272.74. This was above a strong resistance level at 1263. That close, above resistance, still forecasts a run for the next resistance level which is at SPX 1289. "
This week:
This week may very well have defined the U.S. stock market for the next several months. All indices broke out to new highs on huge volume and good breadth.
The small caps (see the Small Cap Timer) finally started their move as well. They have been lagging the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 for months, and we now expect them to play catch-up to this powerful market rally. Many do not consider the small caps to be important, but if they lag, eventually, in our experience, any rally will fall apart.
Initially, Monday's huge rally did not convince us that we would start a new bull rally. It was possibly just a reaction to a very oversold market that had even declined during the holidays, which was quite unusual.
But the advance continued, across the board, all week. Today, all major indices broke out to new 5 week highs. That not only is bullish in its own right, but in the process, it formed a huge outside reversal week. You may not remember that the market sold off on Monday. Yup, another morning rally fizzled. But this time the buyers stepped up to the plate and overwhelmed the sellers, sparking the huge triple digit rally.
We are now just a fraction below the next resistance level and target for this rally, at SPX 1289. We have come a long way in only five days, so some consolidation is to be expected, but we do not expect it to last long. A decisive close above SPX 1289 will forecast a run to at least SPX 1318 (see chart below).
If we are right in our current wave analysis, we have just started a Wave 3 advance. Wave 3 is the largest wave in a series of 5 waves. This means we should see at least a better than +8.5% total gain in the advance.
The trend for the S&P is UP. We are in a BULLISH position in the Rydex Nova Fund (or other bullish S&P index fund).
larrybaz: LOL, the home invasion feeling is similar to my experiences.
Anyone hear of NTRI (Nutrisystem)? Well, I owned this one when it was in the $1.00 range (currently $37.16). I sold it for a SMALL profit if I remember correctly. I probably sold it because the earnings faltered a little or the balance sheet weakened a little bit or maybe because I thought it was getting a little overextended.
I think what you are saying is, that the rigid adherence to Value Microcapping has failed you in the past and that it is all a guessing game. How does one know if holding a stock that drifts in and out of value will work for the long term. You don't!
Build or Buy? I need a cheap computer for my 4 year old to use http://www.pianowizard.com/purchase.php
Can't imagine that she will need to do much beyond the basics.
any thoughts? TIA