It may be Stockholm syndrome, but I do think some of the criticism of Goldman Sachs regarding its subprime deals is overblown. I don’t deny that there have been apparent violations of the securities laws in terms of disclosures, but the central issue that upset Senator Levin and Matt Taibbi so much has not seemed […]
At the beginning of this week I posted a review of some of my recommendations, citing Chiquita Brands (CQB) as an attractive purchase that never went anywhere, and Coinstar (CSTR) as a compelling short idea that had dramatically gone against me on a wave of optimism. Imagine my surprise to see Chiquita Brands up over […]
Netsuite is a company that produces an integrated suite of business applications for medium sized businesses. Within this core area they also produce industry-specific applications, and also a platform that allows for customer-driven development. The company was born in 1998 and seems to have brought some of that era’s valuation with it, as the company […]
I was involved in a conversation recently about short selling, where the old adage was trotted out that a stock can rise to infinity but only drop to zero, which is said to illustrate that short selling is more risky than investing on the long side. Although this is technically true, its impact on the […]
As some of you may recall, I called Coinstar an attractive short target some months ago, and it didn’t exactly go so well. In fact, it did go exactly as high as $38.28, when I called for the short at $25.91. Of course, that was during a massive stock market rally; one of the purposes […]
My loyal reader(s) who have been following this blog may recall that I called Coinstar a candidate for shorting . At the time it was at 25.91, and it is now at 36.15. So, that’s probably not my best work, although I maintain that the company’s return on its investments is too low to justify […]
Shorting stocks is widely considered dangerous. The old adage is that “Stocks can only fall to zero, but they can rise to infinity.” I’ve always been unsatisfied with this explanation, because I’ve never seen a stock actually rise to infinity, and if I did see one I would short it. The problem with shorting is […]