Market Rise and Fall?

The Stock Market has been fairly strong since the turn of the year. However, that doesn't mean that the trend will continue upward. As always, you have to identify sectors that will grow, as opposed to individual companies. Last year, semiconductors were extremely strong due to the advent of the iphone4 and ipad. This year, it may be the rise of oil and natural resources.

Here are a few that I'm currently looking at:

XING: $2.48 - Down 12% since start 1/1/11
HDY: $4.25 - Down 14% since start 1/1/11
RIG: $80.01 - Up 15% since start 1/1/11


Going back to my analysis from last posting (from September 2010), I recommended PCS over the "Big 3" telecom companies.

Here are the results as of today:

PCS: $9.77 -> $13.57
ATT: $27.93 -> $28.73
Verizon: $30.91 -> $36.40
Sprint: $4.56 -> $4.50

As you can see, PCS rolled to about a 40% increase in 4 months. Verizon was closest with a 20% increase while ATT and Sprint both struggled.

Always evaluate the competition of the stock you want to buy and choose the companies that have the potential to break the mold and develop into, not only a stable company, but an innovative company.

it's like the running of the bulls

Stocks are very unpredictable. But, from my brief experience dabbling in them, there is a simple and clear rule that never fails: good companies stocks go up and bad companies stocks go down.

Take for instance the prime example of blockbuster vs netflix. If you had to predict 3 years ago which company would be performing better today, which would you have chosen? If you had to put money on it, such as $2000, which company would you have trusted? If you picked netflix, your $2000 would be $12000+ today. If you picked blockbuster, you would have lost it all.

On hindsight, it's pretty easy. But let's take a look at several companies today and try to figure out who will end up the winner 3 years from now.

Cell provider
AT&T - 27.93
Verizon - 30.91
Sprint - 4.56
Metropcs- 9.77

So, looking at the current landscape, AT&T and verizon currently have sizable leads in marketshare. AT&T has the benefit of the iPhone while verizon is basking in the success of great marketing and customer service. Then you have the old warhorse in sprint and the new upstart metropcs. In 3 years, which company will be at the top?

I can't give you a rock solid prediction. Nobody can. Can you predict if apple will continue to make AT&T it's only provider? Will verizon suddenly fall off due to overpricing? Will metropcs become the neat new company that takes the tech world by storm? These are all questions as you evaluate each of these companies.

I always like to look at the upstarts and underdogs. AT&T has maximized its potential. It may rise and fall moderately but Its days of innovation seem too far gone. Verizon has also appeared to have hit its peak. Not much is new in terms of its plans,and the droid is doing a decent job of keeping it's current subscribers but still nothing earth shattering.

That leaves sprint and metropcs. Of these 2, metropcs has the biggest room for growth, simply based on it's relative youth. You can see that potential word creeping in where the other 3 companies could be seen as older veterans ready for retirement.

If you look at the trending of the past 6 months, you see strong positive signs with around a 30% return. This appears to be due to their ability to tap into various markets such as the prepaid phone market. These types of moves are the ones that could help spark a company to become the leader of the pack.

I'm no stock expert but common logic is good companies are good investments. Just be careful to invest what you can afford to lose because you never know if that stock will be a netflix or a blockbuster.

Hiatus?

No, not really. Just been busy..

Expect more posts coming up. I will be giving out my best and worst lost male characters, predictions for the MLB stretch run, NFL thoughts and finally a video that will blow your mind

Hiatus?

Personal Wednesdays.

I love lazy days.
I don't like hazy days
I like groups of 5 or less
I don't like people who take credit for something they didn't do
I like hugs
I don't like half hugs
I like being myself
I don't like being fake
I love my friends
I love my wife
I love my God
I love you

Youtube Tuesday: Boom Goes the Dynamite

Boom Goes the Dynamite. Funny the first minute. Viral the next. Then, Will Smith popularized it. It is now considered pop culture as a way to describe a lack of verbal elegance. But I would simply describe it as Awkward. Enjoy!

Top Five Friday: Best & Worst LOST Female Characters

LOST is my favorite television show of all time. It has mystery, intringue, polar bears, black smoke monsters and, most importantly, very engaging characters. In my attempt to walk down memory lane, I will start by highlighting the 5 best AND worst Female Characters from LOST which is harder than it sounds (not many memorable females on the show). For those not familiar with LOST, be warned that my comments may contain some spoilers.

Worst 5

5. Eloise Hawking - Manipulative. Conniving. Vague. I think that was the most annoying thing about Ms. Hawking (outside of killing her own son). She seemed to know all of the secrets, yet always spoke in riddles and vagueness. If you knew everything about the island, why not tell everyone??

Worst Moment: Shooting her son in the back right when we thought he was going to find all of the answers.

4. Ana Lucia - The Terrell Owens of LOST. Always looking out for #1. Complaining when she isn't given her due. Making brash decisions that haunted her up until her death. Good going Michael.

Worst Moment: Shooting Shannon. All males groaned.

3. Charlotte - Who is she? What is her purpose? Why did she want to come back to the island? Well, I guess we'll never know. Instead of exploring her story, we were forced to witness some awkward romance with Daniel and repeated nosebleeds. Great. Thanks Charlotte.

Worst Moment: Dying, while talking about chocolate.

2. Nikki - She was on Expose. And complained nobody was noticing her. And then she was paralyzed. By a bug. Oh well.

Worst moment: Whenever she talked.

1. Zoe - She claims to know a lot about the island, but... I honestly have no idea why she was on the show. She came. She talked. She annoyed. She died. Two thumbs way down.

Worst moment: Getting slashed in the throat by Locke.... Actually that was a great moment.

Best 5

5. Rose - Always the voice of reason and supportive throughout the show, Rose shows that she won't back down from anybody and will stand up for what she believes in. She was one of the stronger characters on the show.

Best Moment: Always holding out hope to meet her husband Bernard... and then finally finding him.

4. Claire Littleton - Strong. Mysterious. Very Pregnant. Claire was a very strong and prominent character in the early seasons of LOST. She had a likeability that seemed to be lacking from a lot of characters. Sure, she went crazy by the end of the show, but I don't think we should discount the importance of her character throughout the first four seasons.

Best Moment: Sharing an imaginary jar of peanut butter with Charlie.

3. Sun Kwon - Now this is a devoted Korean woman. She may have been completely destroyed as a character as the show went on, but she really tugged at our hearts with some key moments throughout the show. Plus, whacking Ben in the head with a paddle was pretty damn cool.

Best Moment - Screaming like a banshee after the freighter blew up.

2. Kate Austen - Love Her, Hate Her. She seemed useless at times, for sure. However, you can't deny how much of an impact she had on so many important characters: Jack, Sawyer, Claire, Aaron. Only if she wasn't so hesitant and indecisive, would she then have earned the #1 spot

Best Moment - Counting to Five in the pilot.

1. Juliet Burke - She only graced us with her presence for 3 full seasons, but boy were they powerful. She played such a huge part in various parts of the show, such as leading the Others to explosions, notifying Sun of her pregnancy, tugging at both Jack and Sawyer's hearts and ultimately blowing up the island. Without Juliet, LOST would have been very different.

Best Moment - Blowing Up the Bomb, which led to everyone, including the viewers, to be completely confused.

Come back next week for the Top 5 Best & Worst Male Characters!