wisdomous.com

A few things have happened since i last reported on my market activities:

New Purchases:

JNJ - it’s a great company and I picked it up for 55.44. It should also benefit from the stimulus money and an aging population

ABT - The benefits of the stimulus should also be felt by Abbott Labs. Got is at $44.20

RYU - Weighted utilities, can’t go wrong at $39.00

TAN - I believe solar power is the best out there and eventually it will dominate over others. The key is: no movable parts.

Sales:

F - Although ford may rebound in the future, i dont believe it is a good long term investment. Sold it for a capital gains loss.

SIRI - I was going to rebuy SIRI, but i think there are better opportunities out there.

Previous Holdings:

WM, LEH, NT - I’m holding on to these  to see how the bankruptcies play out.

BAC - I still like this copmany, 2nd quarter of 2009 was poor, but once all the loan losses are absorbed, the should be in the big time money.

IRBT - Holding on.

DOW and S&P 500 - Holding on, it’s kind of a no brainer

XLF - i think the potential is big for financials. Plus XLF also holds real estate companies, upside only.

GE - Holding on.

BX - a little recovery this week, the stock shot up before the earnings release, Im holding on till it hits at least $25

The Dow hit 6820 this morning.

S&P 500 hit 707

I thought DOW was a good buy at 10000 and the S&P500 at 1000.

Boy, was I wrong.

I still see the S&P 500 doubling in 5 years, so long term is still looking good to me.

but we’ll see what the future holds.

I see more and more experts feeling fearful. This means that we either hit bottom or bottom is very near.  When experts say cash is king that’s when you know it is time to start buying stocks.

I have been and will continue buying the S&P 500 index.

I have also found and started buying a mutual fund tied to international indexes.

Current economics theory suggests to spend our way out of a recession, but is that a good thing?

I disagree, i think the economy needs to fix itself, give it time to heal. A bailout is the equivalent of curing a hang over by drinking more. It may feel better in a short term, but long term you still are going to feel the pain.

What happens if the bailout does not work? Governments will be deep in debt with no revenue to pay for it. Interest rates will have to go up (to sell debt bonds) and the economy once again will slow down.

I think recessions are a good thing, they remind us to save for a rainy day, the reprice things back to affordable, and show us which investment managers are running scams.

I guess we will have to just sit and watch how this unfolds, but i have a bad feeling about all these bailouts.

A few things have happened since i last reported on my market activities

BBT - sold it at $43.50 on Sep. 19 2008 - here for once I made the right move.

BHBC - in August 2008 i bought at $0.90 and sold a week later at $1.61 - i just could not resist.

WM - Washington Mutual got taken over by FDIC and equity was wiped out - that one hurt

LEH - Lehman Brothers was pushed into bankruptcy  and all the equity was wiped out - ouch

NT - Nortel filed for bankruptcy wiping out shareholders - ouch again

BAC - Bank of America shares fell to as low as $3.77 (Feb 5 2009) and they slashed their dividend to a 4 cents (annually)

F - well it is down to around $2, I still have faith in Ford long term, they seem to be the healthiest out of the big three (Ford, GM, Chrysler). I sold F at a loss to book a tax loss. I will re-buy in 30 days as i don’t feel the stock will move much during that time

SIRI - Sirus has merged with XM which is good, but they have a mountain of debt, and in the current environment that’s not something to be taken lightly. I don’t think the stock will go anywhere in the next 30 days so i have sold it for a tax loss and will rebuy in 30 days. I still feel that long term they are a good prospect. Although, satelite telephones never went mainstream.

IRBT -  Irobot is a company that will be huge in the future, they are the leading robotics company and in my opinion robotics will be HUGE in the future. They are a steal (in my opinion) at the current price ($8)

DOW and S&P 500 bothe indexes are good places to putmoney in, I thought the DOW presents value at 10000 and S&P at 1000. As of today (FEB 6 2009) the Dow is at 8250 and S&P is at 850, which in my mind is a steal of a long term investment. Like i said i am spacing my purchases 2 weeks apart and buying on negative days (where the indexes dip)

XLF - In my last update i wrote that despite of the risk i do like financial stocks. Well, after taking a hit on Lehman and WaMu I decided to go a bit safer route. XLF is an Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) that holds all the major financials. I got into it twice: first at $11 and then at $10. As of today it is at $9.62

GE - General Electric is well diversified, plus it hold my favorite TV network: NBC. I got in at $13.01. For now they are sticking with their dividend and they are still making money.

BX - Here i was betting on the “smart money”. I thinkBlackstone’s business is going to thrive once we get past this downturn. Yes, they reported a loss but I still have faith. I got in at $8, today they are sitting at $5.38

the indexes are great deals at the following levels:

DJIA (DOW) at or below 10,000

S&P500 at or below 1000

TSX  at or below 8000

as of today (oct 07 2008) the DOW and S&P500 have crossed those thresholds on their way down

TSX should be along soon.

Find a index fund with an MER less than 0.5% and put some money there. I think it should be rewarding. But of course only time can tell.

According to my calculations it should offer good long term returns if bought below this level

DJIA = Dow Jones Indusrial Index

it is composed of 30 “greatest” companies

Farewell WaMu

Good bye Lehman

I’ll miss you, I’ll miss all the money I lost on your equity even more.

thinking of you Bear Stearns, IndyMac, and countless others.

Merrill Lynch, who would have thought you’d have to give yourself away.

It will never be the same without you guys.

All I can offer is a moment of silence.

June was a busy month for me and for the financial markets. I have added to my holdings:

BBT - low price, high dividend, solid balance sheet - what’s not to like?

WM - this is more of a speculative purchase, TPG paid $8.75 a share a few months back. So I figured $6.59 is not too bad 

BAC - I added some shares of BAC at current price the dividend works out to 10%

As you can tell i am liking financials right now. They may decline for a few months even through 2009, but when the rebound comes they are going to shoot up. Meanwhile BAC and BBT pay good dividends. I am eyeing 2 more banks: BHBC and ABCW.  ABCW seems like a solid buy with a 9% dividend. BHBC is more of a speculative buy.

I am also load up on some F shares, I think at $4.50 it is a steal. Keep in mind Kerkorian paid $8.50 for 20 million shares and around $7 for 100 million shares. He must know something.

Both the DOW and NASDAQ officially entered the BEAR territory. FOr most is a sell signal, for me it is buying time. I am going to space out my purchases at least 2 weeks apart as no-one knows how long or how deep the current slump will go. If you have extra money but the DOW index, long term it is an awesome investment.

Here are my current holdings:

Here are my current holdings:

I added some Revlon shares to my portfolio, at $0.91 they were a good deal and Mr. PERELMAN (Revlon’s majority shareholder) purchased a million shares on the 5th of March 2008 for $ 0.99 a share. He obviously must know something. Also i have read the 4th quarter 2007 earnings call, and I liked what the executives had to say. The company seems to have direction now, and a clear marketing plan in place. The loss was narrowed to only 3 cents a share, I see it as a sign of a turnaround.  Furthermore, there are a number of new product introductions planned, which in turn should increase revenue. My bet is that by Q3 2008 Revlon will turn a profit, which should be good for the stock price. The only downside is their long term debt ($1.4B after Q4).

Here are my current holdings:

The following is a list of stocks I’m researching in order to buy:

Blackstone (BX)
Loblaws (L.TO)
George Weston (WN.TO)
Bank of Montreal (BMO)