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Thanks much!
Man, when you lose your laugh you lose your footing. ~Ken Kesey
OT: Well-documented, totally scientific results of worrying too much about GTCB:
>So what are you saying? That the majority of the people that you would sell to in this climate are going to get a bad deal yet you would tell them that now is a great time to buy?<
No, my friend, that's not what I'm saying.
Has the stock market been steadily declining? Of course.
Have we reached the bottom? Who knows.
Despite this, have you been buying stocks? I have.
How can this be? I'm very careful, do my DD, get the best deal I can.
OT: I'm a real estate broker in the heart of middle America, I've got almost 40 years experience in the business.
It's all about perception, and a bottom will not be reached until the public perceives that a bottom has been reached. Catch 22? I think so.
We are desperately trying to convince the public that now is a great time to buy, and truthfully, if you negotiate hard some great deals can be had. However, in my heart of hearts, I know that we still have a long and painful way to go.
>... as investors warily await investment bank results that could aggravate fears of a full-blown markets crisis.<
"Fears" of one? Are they really saying "fears" of one?
Give me a break. The dam has broken, water is rushing in, it's here.
Yikes! Did I dodge a bullet with this one, hope you got out alive.
As I said earlier, seems like a deal at this price:
From The WSJ:
QUOTE OF THE DAY
'Financial markets are as close to collapse as I've seen in my career.'
— Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist, Bank of Tokyo
>When was the last successful bank run on a well-capitalized firm?<
I'm assuming you meant to type "as a well-capitalized firm."
I've had Wells Fargo in my long term, non-trading portfolio for decades. They've stayed away from most of the shenanigans that are coming to light and actually have an under-leveraged balance sheet.
I'm totally out of dry powder so no more for me, but I envy the price paid by Dr. Cox. Mid-forties, wow. That would have done wonders for my average PPS!
>Fortunately being able to answer those questions has no bearing on being able to pick up my garbage..All you need for that,is the ability to reconize a house address and remember to put the can back in the driveway..
The world needs garbage collectors too..<
My friend:
I said nothing about one's very basic knowledge of math, science, history, English and other languages, literature and the other arts and their relevance to one's occupation or continued higher education.
That "garbage collector" has an inner and an outer life far greater than his nine-to-five job. He buys, sells, votes; he influences his family, friends, neighborhood; he determines the quality of our society to a large extent.
No, he does not need the ability to quote Shakespeare. That's not the problem. The problem is the lack of logical thinking. All the school disciplines ultimately teach this one crucial skill, and it's the lack of this skill that's causing many of our problems. Illogical thinking means he'll buy lottery tickets as part of his financial planning; sign home mortgages that he doesn't understand; hate people because they look or act a bit differently; support nonsensical wars and believe every transparent lie that the Boob Tube and the internet trumpet.
Call me a Jeffersonian idealist (look it up), but the world needs garbage collectors that understand the world.
I taught high school for ten years before I lost my patience with the parents and the bureaucracy; any teacher anywhere will confirm your story and worse.
Routinely, year after year, teenagers did not know:
The capital of the US(I heard LA & NY a lot.)
Who we fought in the Revolutionary War (the Germans, the Japanese. I kid you not.)
In what century was the Civil War (I dared not be more specific: the 15th,16th,17th,18th,20th all the time.)
Name two 20th century writers (Stephen King and then the well ran dry.)
When was the Vietnam War (1700's, 1800's routinely.)
Which is further away, the sun or the moon (how am I supposed to know? was a common answer.)
The list goes on and on.
No books in the home, no intelligent conversation, low expectations, the tv on constantly: life in America.
>Genentech’s Problem: Too Much Cash Flow<
Yep, I had that same problem once, then I got married and had kids.
Dew-
The owner of Sonora is H. Bradley Toland, Jr., a longtime poster on Silicon Investor, and perhaps (?) this board. Do you know him?
OT: For the "We Should Be So Lucky" department-
Now I am in no way suggesting that GTC is a Fortune 500 company like Chesapeake Energy, or that Dr. Cox is Aubrey McClendon, but check out the insider buying by this dude:
>If this fear proves to be unfounded, the upside could be huge from here.<
Which reminds me of the famous Baron Rothschild quote:
"When there is blood in the street, I am buying."
>Just bought 3K @ .51. Am I in Las Vegas or what?
Just got home and read your message:
I know people type this and don't mean it, but that one was truly LOL.
Check out the COR board, these two recent messages (#15997 & #15999) for spot-on comments about what's going on with GTC and many other biotechs. It's all about the financing!
OT: I understand and agree, for the most part, on boards.
I found this site by accident last year when I had some money in DNDN (though like many I got greedy and missed the $25 mark I still had a double.) Dew especially impressed me; when someone posts facts and your own DD concurs, time and again, a certain level of trust develops. My ears perked up when he called MNTA; I waited two days to buy and got a lower price than him, but I sold at my modest goal of 20%. Presumably he's still holding and should wind up with at least a double.
There are people on this site and others that have proven, IMO, that they know of what they speak. Many, many people come from a different, not-so-reliable place and they play absolutely no part in my decisions. (For example, if someone told me that he found this guy who posts silly photos with goofy captions and from now on he's going to base all his investments on that guy, I'd suggest a good psychiatric examination!)
I guess what I'm saying is that these boards can be a valuable source as long as one considers the "sources within the source." I check out everything that seems interesting with my own DD, I've been burnt a few times, but I've also had some great tips.
>By only commenting on the last portion of my post only supports what I said.<
It just seemed a bit harsh and uncalled for.
Anyway, more importantly, I agree with what you said. The science is good, now would be a terrible time to sell, one shouldn't be making highly speculative investments with one's lunch money. Peace, my friend.
>Not that anyone on this board gives a crap what my opinion
is, as it should be! I don't give a crap about anyone's
opinion on this board or any other internet communications
medium.<
Well, I was right with you until the end there, fella'.
Then why not save yourself the trouble and just keep it to yourself?
I couldn't agree with you more, no reverse split, please, but we are NOT in control of that decision!
This is a very old Hulbert article, but worth reading.
STRATEGIES; If a Split Is in Reverse, the Company May Be, Too
By MARK HULBERT
Published: November 3, 2002
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DE1DF1E3FF930A35752C1A9649C8B63&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
PLANS for reverse stock splits have been announced recently by companies like Lucent Technologies and Nortel Networks. If recent research is a guide, such stocks are likely to lag behind the market over the coming year.
In a reverse split, a company reduces the number of its outstanding shares, which results in a correspondingly higher price. Palm Inc., for example, had a 1-for-20 reverse split on Oct. 15. It reduced the company's outstanding shares from nearly 580 million to just under 29 million and increased the share price to nearly $13 from 64 cents.
None of Palm's fundamentals, of course. changed as a result of the company's action. Its total market capitalization remained the same, and so did its ratios of price to earnings and price to book value. The value of investors' holdings didn't change either.
Companies often say they are undertaking a reverse split to prevent shares from being delisted. When a company's stock trades below $1 per share for an extended period, the major stock exchanges, at their discretion can force those shares to be traded elsewhere. (The Nasdaq market, however, is considering relaxing this requirement.) Undoubtedly, another -- though unspoken -- reason for a reverse split is to avoid the embarrassment of being a penny stock.
A company's real reasons may be far more complex. Only a small minority of companies whose stocks trade at less than $1 a share ever reverse-split their shares. Some other factors may account for why only a few choose to do so.
One such factor has emerged from academic research. Perhaps the most important study, which appeared in the July 1997 issue of The Journal of Business, measured all reverse splits in the United States from 1926 to 1991. The authors were two accounting professors -- Hemang A. Desai of Southern Methodist University and Prem C. Jain of Georgetown. They found that, over the year after the announcement, the average stock undergoing a reverse split performed 8.5 percent worse than the stock market, defined as the total market capitalization of all publicly traded companies in the United States. According to the professors, this poor performance cannot be explained by the tiny market capitalizations of most companies undergoing these splits or the negative momentum of their stock prices.
David L. Ikenberry, a finance professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Sundaresh Ramnath, an accounting professor at Georgetown, have developed a theory that does explain it. They believe that when management lacks confidence in its company's stock, it is more likely to use a reverse split. By contrast, they say, if management believes that the low price is just temporary, it will be more likely to leave the stock alone. The professors presented their research in the spring 2002 issue of The Review of Financial Studies.
Confirmation of this confidence factor comes from the performance of stocks undergoing the opposite type of split -- the regular type, known formally as a forward split -- in which a company increases the number of shares while reducing their price.
The shares of such companies fare particularly well. From 1926 to 1991, according to Professors Desai and Jain, the average stock undergoing a forward split outperformed the market by 6.8 percent over the year after the split's announcement. As in the case of the reverse splits, this difference remained even after adjusting for market cap and momentum.
Stock splits of both varieties appear to be part of a larger class of events in which management signals its opinions of the company's prospects. Such events also include insiders' purchases and sales of a company's stock, as well as a company's repurchase of its shares in the open market.
Researchers now believe that in all such cases, not just stock splits, many investors initially underreact to the signals. That creates an investment opportunity for those who react quickly. In the case of reverse splits, that means selling immediately after the split is announced.
Mark Hulbert is editor of The Hulbert Financial Digest, a newsletter based in Annandale, Va. His column on investment strategies appears every other week. <br />E-mail: strategy@nytimes.com
I know. I'm interested in stocks, very occasionally look at this board, but I'm well aware of these types of settings and the various opinions found on them, I've been dealing with that crap my whole life. I just don't have the patience to argue the obvious with the uninformed, my hat's off to you if you do.
Think I'll drop out of this scene, best of luck.
It's one of the most ignorant, head-in-the-sand, knee-jerk, nonsensical and downright annoying responses to the whole mess; I'm just sick of hearing it and amazed that any adult American citizen is still unashamed to trot it out.
You insult the fine men and women
who died for a Real Reason
in a Just War
when you compare this monstrous travesty
to World War II.
LOL, very funny, and you're right!
Exactly what I've always believed to be true, but I was willing to consider evidence to the contrary. (If Elvis reappears after all these years, and it's really him, well then I was wrong.)
Just wondering about these types of class action suits.
They're not something I've ever been able to take seriously, perhaps because they're so often "threatened" on message boards. I can't see what proof the plaintiff could offer, or how compensation could be determined.
Can you or anyone on the board give a specific example or two of one of these suits actually succeeding? How were the shareholders compensated? TIA.
> What if we're at 25 cents if the buyout happens?<
I'm not sure what buyout people are talking about. More germane, IMO, is a very possible reverse split. If this trend continues, and if the purpose of the split is to keep us from delisting, we'd be looking at a 1-for-3!
A Message From Your Corporate Headquarters:
I'm a newcomer to GTCB, especially compared to some of the really longtime holders. As a result, I've been able to establish a relatively large position at a decent price.
As unhappy as I am with the current PPS, I realize that I can't complain about my average cost per share when compared to many others.
I understand if you'd prefer not to reveal this, but just out of curiosity, including today's purchase what's your average cost per share?
How about this one for"No rhyme or reason?"
Man: NY Hospital Forced Rectal Exam
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/01/16/national/a075247S94.DTL&tsp=1
01-16) 08:26 PST New York (AP) --
A construction worker claimed in a lawsuit that when he went to a hospital after being hit on the forehead by a falling wooden beam, emergency room staffers forcibly gave him a rectal examination.
Brian Persaud, 38, says in court papers that after he denied a request by NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital emergency room employees to examine his rectum, he was "assaulted, battered and falsely imprisoned."
His lawyer, Gerrard M. Marrone, said he and Persaud later learned the exam was one way of determining whether he had suffered spinal damage in the accident.
Marrone said his client got eight stitches for a cut over his eyebrow.
Then, Marrone said, emergency room staffers insisted on examining his rectum and held him down while he begged, "Please don't do that." He said Persaud hit a doctor while flailing around and staffers gave him an injection, which knocked him out, and performed the rectal exam.
Persaud woke up handcuffed to a bed and with an oxygen tube down his throat, the lawyer said, and spent three days in a detention center.
A request by the hospital to dismiss Persaud's lawsuit was denied by Justice Alice Schlesinger, who ordered a trial to start March 31.
Hospital spokesman Bryan Dotson said, "While it would be inappropriate for us to comment on specifics of the case, we believe it is completely without merit and intend to contest it vigorously."
Persaud's lawsuit, filed in Manhattan's state Supreme Court, seeks unspecified damages. A judge dismissed a misdemeanor assault charge against him.
Yes, but the price target was changed from $3.00 to $1.50
http://www.briefing.com/Investor/Public/Calendars/UpgradesDowngrades.htm
He comes from an ultra,ultra rich family, real estate and other businesses. Grew up in a high-end home in a high-end neighborhood, prep school, Princeton, etc.,etc. As so often is the case his actual net worth is hard to pin down, but it is in the many millions.
He is way too smart and sophisticated to use the state's money, and would have absolutely no need to.
Just to clarify: I'm not saying that it's wonderful for married guys with kids to vist prostitutes. But I also don't want a country where self-appointed Morality Police make the rules.
We're threatening the wrong politician with impeachment:
Eliot Spitzer spends his own money on whores, the Puritans scream for blood, meanwhile:
3,983 U.S. Military Fatalities in Iraq
485 U.S. Military Fatalities in Afghanistan
29,320 U.S. Military Maimed in Iraq (source: DoD Update as of March 5, 2008)
89,353 Iraqis Reported Killed (source: Iraq Body Count)
And finally, we'll spend at least 3 trillion dollars on this madness.
Impeach who?
Harking back to the other day (is it gambling or not), there's no question that we're risk-takers!
I'm sorry I didn't jump in at 1.45, since I was only looking for 20% I probably would have gotten out OK in the 1.70-1.75 range.
However, this latest drop proves what I was saying a couple of weeks ago. I am very careful of my buy price points because no matter how low you think something is, in this market there's a damn good chance it's going lower!
I would not get into NUVO at this point. I'll keep watching it, see if it bottoms out and then stays there awhile.
Yes, I believe we are caught by that region, but hopefully we'll be able to extricate ourselves with all organs and finances intact!
I couldn't resist!