Nicholas Taleb at his best! Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Posted by ei-forum in Investing.1 comment so far
We have talked about Mr. Taleb in the past and have even reviewed his book ‘Fooled by Randomness’ (read post – here).
Nicholas Taleb has a reputation for having little patience when dealing with people who do not really know what they are talking about and being extremely passionate too! This is a segment of a show he was recently on when he tries to get his message across… trying to explain why we find ourselves in the current situation, the effect of leverage, complicated models, risk exposure, etc…
at his best!
S&P stock screen Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Posted by ei-forum in US Traded Stocks.1 comment so far
It’s been a while since we ran one of our screens! In the midst of all this turmoil and our continued posts on looking for Small Cap Value, some of our readers have asked us about interesting opportunities in the S&P.
Needless to say, there are a number of high quality companies trading at extremely distressed prices and don’t forget that you could always avoid having to take a specific bet by simply buying the SPY ETF that tracks the whole S&P500. However, we thought that it could be interesting to look at it a different way and look for one of the less obvious names and ran the following screen:
- S&P Index Membership
- Return on Equity >/= to Industry Average Return on Equity
- Price/Book </= to Industry Average Price to Book
- P/E Ratio </= to Industry Average P/E Ratio
- Income per Employee >/= to Industry Average Income per Employee
- Inventory Turnover >/= Industry Average Inventory Turnover
- Debt to Equity Ratio </= Industry Average Debt to Equity Ratio
- Dividend Payout Latest Fiscal Year >/= Industry Average Dividend Payout Latest Fiscal Year
- Net Profit Margin >/= Industry Average Net Profit Margin
Would you believe that the above screen only gave us one name? That’s it, the only company that came up is:
Total System Services, Inc. (NYSE: TSS). From the Yahoo! profile page:
- Total System Services, Inc. provides electronic payment processing and related services to financial and nonfinancial institutions. The company’s services include processing consumer, retail, commercial, and government services, as well as stored value and debit cards. It also offers merchant acquiring services to financial institutions and other organizations. In addition, the company provides risk management tools and techniques, such as credit evaluation, fraud detection and prevention, and behavior analysis tools; and revenue enhancement tools and customer retention programs, such as loyalty programs and bonus rewards. It offers its services in the United States, Europe, China, Japan, Mexico, and Canada. The company was founded in 1982 and is based in Columbus, Georgia. Total System Services, Inc. (NYSE:TSS) operates independently of Synovus Financial Corp. as of December 31, 2007.
A quick check shows us that this company is currently rated a ‘BUY’ on the Barron’s stock grader system and that Morning* gives it 4 stars. Does this mean that this is an automatic ‘BUY’? The answer is NO! This simply means that after having filtered through our screen, it appears that other people following this company think that it has good prospects… now it is up to the Enterprising Investor to do his own due diligence to understand if this company is really worth investing in and if it fits into a specific investment strategy.
Enjoy your research and let us know what you think!
Please read our disclaimer.
$250 Billion investment in Banks Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Posted by ei-forum in US Traded Stocks.add a comment
Well, the Paulson plan is well underway… who are the lucky ones:
- Citi – 25 billion
- JP Morgan – 25 billion
- BOA – 12.5 billion
- Merrill – 12.5 billion
- Goldman – 10 billion
- Morgan Stanley – 10 billion
- …
Stocks and Recessions Monday, October 13, 2008
Posted by ei-forum in US Traded Stocks.add a comment
We have already written about this in the past but we just came across this interesting pdf from the Wall Street Journal:
- excerpt: … Since the late1940s, recessions have lasted an average of 10 months, and stocks have hit bottom an average of three months before the economic downturn ends. The worry now is that, if the world’s financial system doesn’t right itself, a recession could last longer, perhaps even as long as the 16-month slump that ended in 1975…
Go directly to the WSJ article: click here.
Financial crisis in Europe Monday, October 13, 2008
Posted by ei-forum in Miscellaneous.add a comment
With so much coverage of the current financial turmoil and all the devastating effects it is having on the US economy, we thought that some of our readers would be curious to get a better understanding of the deep problems facing Europe and recent events there …
Sadly, Europeans are only starting to realize what the impact of this crisis means for them and they will most likely take longer to shake off all the effects and ramifications…. look at Spain and Ireland… not to mention Iceland!
European Markets Bounce Monday, October 13, 2008
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It’s only fitting that we update our previous post with some better news…
European Markets Friday, October 10, 2008
Posted by ei-forum in EU Traded Stocks.2 comments
Here is an overview of the European markets before we open here in the US:
Again, not a pretty picture….
What about the others? Friday, October 10, 2008
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We have been so focused on troubles in the US and more recently, in Europe that most people have completely forgotten about the rest of the world. Naturally, the US is impacting everyone else and other markets are principally responding to the moves on wall street but we thought that our readers might like to have the following overview.
In the following graph, we compare the latest 3 month performance for the US total Market (using the Vanguard VTI) against the Russian market ETF (RSX), the Greater China Fund (XGCHX) and the Japan Equity Fund (JEQ).
Needless to say, not a pretty site…. and it looks like the end of then week will only drag this graph lower.
Thought of the Day… Friday, October 10, 2008
Posted by ei-forum in Miscellaneous.add a comment
We are not trying to be negative or pushing for panic… things will sort themselves out. However, this caption highlights the mood on the street.
Waiting for better days…
Tech Trio: Yahoo, Apple & Google Thursday, October 9, 2008
Posted by ei-forum in Investing.4 comments
With most of the commentary focused on the financial industry and the economy at large, we thought it could be useful to highlight the kind of market cap destruction that has hit the famous ‘Tech Trio’.
Hereafter, readers can see the latest 6 month chart for these companies where we compare YHOO vs. AAPL and GOOG – quite shocking to say the least!
Who would have thought to see Yahoo trading around 13 USD, Apple under 100 USD and Google under350? Here are some more detailed figures:
Conditions are likely to remain difficult but even the most ‘anti-tech’ Enterprising Investor will be forced to start to have a look at these three incredible franchises if they continue this slide…
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