Headlines and don’t forget today’s chat at 2pm EST
Here’s what I was reading and thinking about today when I wasn’t watching the sun rise over the Capitan mountains from my new home in the mountains of southeastern New Mexico.
A Large Middle Class Isn’t Necessarily Normal – My old friend and mentor, David Merkel, with a very controversial take on what’s a “normal” distribution of wealth in a society. I disagree with him trying to tie his conclusion to the what the people are fighting at Occupy Wall Street, but he’s written a very challenging take on a lot of important societal and economic issues and it’s key to investment success to challenge your own assumptions.
How to trade Netflix now — In Jay Somaney’s chat today, he and his readers are hitting on Netflix and how “The company is telling the sellside they will lose money next year. Despite that, the sellside is still at earnings of $0.59/share for 2012. What happens when these guys realize they have to cut and then cut some more. The high estimate for 2012 is still $5.20/share which is assinine.” I do think Netflix destroyed much of its brand in the last few months with their stupid pricing and service changes, and it probably does go lower eventually. But I tend to think the bears and shorts have leaned a bit too hard on this one lately and it’s probably ready for a move back to say $75 before it hits $55.
A Reason for Concern…A Look Back at 1932 – I love historical parallels, though I will complete this sign with that old chime that history doesn’t repeat, but it rhymes. I’m not a poet and I know it.
LPS Foreclosure Fraud Whistleblower Found Dead (Updated) – Remember when I wrote this article called “The Best Short in the Market” about LPS? Here’s more of the underbelly that’s still weeble-wobbling the whole financial system. Weebles wobble, but they won’t fall down. Banks and certainly mortgage servicers like LPS ain’t weebles though.
Five stocks with great charts – I am not a chartist and I’m not a technician but I do read these “technical analysis” articles on occasion. But as I asked a kid who works with me yesterday when he was talking about how he charts stocks, “In the grand scheme of capitalism, do you really think you think that looking at historical price patterns and drawing lines on a chart will give you much of a competitive advantage over your life time of investing?” Just askin’.
