LongShortTrader

2012-04-10T13:34:00.002-04:00

Fuji X100 Review

2011-05-03T16:46:00.002-04:00

Are you in the market for a cool camera? Then check out my Fuji X100 review.

*****************Like What You're Reading? Click Here to Subcribe To Our RSS Feed!

2010-09-21T11:59:00.001-04:00

Hey all! Check out my new tech stock blog, TechStockJungle.com!

Catch my first post discussing a possible Apple stock split.

*****************Like What You're Reading? Click Here to Subcribe To Our RSS Feed!

Need a New Camera?

2010-09-16T13:37:00.001-04:00

Check out my Panasonic LX5 review.

*****************Like What You're Reading? Click Here to Subcribe To Our RSS Feed!

Wal-Mart Hates Black People. And People With Cancer Too.

2010-03-18T09:34:00.005-04:00

Have you ever worked in retail? If so, you're likely not impressed by the latest dust-up at Wal-Mart (WMT).

Customers at a Washington Township, New Jersey Wal-Mart store heard a voice come over the public address system and say "Attention Wal-Mart customers - all black people leave the store now."

I spent three years working in various retail outlets around NYC, including two supermarkets and a gift store. Now I won't compare my retail experience to digging up mines in Fallujah, but one thing's for certain:

Crazy sh*t happens inside stores.

Let's see:

I once saw a co-worker threaten to kill a customer after a charge of homophobia. The customer was a total jerk, but he did have a point: after all, my former colleague "J" did call that guy a "motherf*cking faggot."

And not only did "J" not lose his job, he got the rest of the night off! I should have been calling all the customers "motherf*cking faggots," even the old ladies!

What else?

I've seen co-workers get very drunk and/or high on the job, sometimes after having sex in the basement.

I've seen those same folks eating pints of Ben & Jerry's right in the frozen-food aisle, putting the half-eaten containers right back on the shelf.

I've also seen employees sneak expensive items into customers' shopping carts to inflate their shopping bills.

I've seen a famous actress try to negotiate the price of a cup of coffee.

I've been hit in the head with a turkey sandwich.

I've been called a fascist.

I've been asked to follow black people around the store.

I've been sprayed with stinky sewage.

I was once told by a manager that she was "disgusted by people with AIDS."

I've been sexually propositioned by old ladies.

And sometimes their husbands.

They may have been your grandparents.

And so on. And so on.

The point is, crazy things happen inside of stores. I don't excuse bigotry. But what happened at the Wal-Mart was more of a prank by a bored employee or mischievous customer than a sign of institutional racism. PA systems were simply designed from the ground up for making trouble:

The suspect is still at large, but I'm thinking it was a politically moderate 25-to-30 year-old man who likes the Colbert Report and was into Borat before Borat was big. If we see a 60 year-old guy in a white hood on the news as a result of this story, I'd be shocked.

But what is really driving me batty is the fact that this story is diverting attention from the real Wal-Mart news - that it fired a man for using legally-prescribed medical marijuana:

Joseph Casias, who was once named an "Associate of the Year" by Wal-Mart's Battle Creek, MI store, has been canned for using medical marijuana. Casias suffers from an inoperable brain tumor and sinus cancer.

According to law, Wal-Mart can fire an employee for failing a drug test - even in the case of those using medical marijuana.

This is the real story we should be talking about.

This guy isn't a junkie scoring smack in the Wal-Mart bathroom. He's a hard-working man with serious health problems, and he still wants to work.

Wal-Mart even objected to Casias receiving unemployment benefits before later changing its mind.

How f*cked up can you be Wal-Mart? You throw a top employee out on his butt for using medical marijuana to relieve the pain cause by his cancer - and then you try to take away his unemployment checks?

The whole situation reminds me of a quote from Clerks:

"What's your encore? Do you, like, anally rape my mother while pouring sugar in my gas tank?"

My mother went through several bouts with leukemia, and I spent a good deal of my 20's inside Sloan Kettering hospital. I've seen a lot of people in serious pain - so much pain that they can barely talk, eat, or sleep without the use of painkillers. And that includes toddlers, the elderly, and everyone in between.

If they want a joint, let's give them one. Leave the judging to higher powers.

*****************

Like What You're Reading? Click Here to Subcribe To Our RSS Feed!

What About the Labor Force Participation Rate?

2010-02-24T11:16:00.005-05:00

I'm having a grand ol' time watching Fed Chair Ben Bernanke get grilled by clueless members of Congress, but it seems that everyone is ignoring my favorite economic statistic:

The Labor Force Participation Rate

The Labor Force Participation Rate is defined as "The labor force participation rate is essentially the ratio of the civilian labor force to the total noninstitutionalized civilian population 16 years of age and over."

In other words, it tells us how many people are working or looking for jobs relative to population of available workers.

The LFPR fell to 58.2% in December, the lowest since 1984. What's also disturbing is that the figure was 66% in 2008. The result is that the ~10% unemployment rate everyone is talking about is actually understated - people have just given up looking for jobs.

And that's my main worry when it comes to the stock market. If the economy is so poor that our citizens aren't even looking for jobs, why should we bet on stocks?

What's more is that the US Census Bureau is projecting a LFPR of 65.5% in 2016. How is this going to happen? We saw a jobless recovery following the bursting of the Internet bubble, and given the shrinking of key sectors like housing and financial services, where will the job growth come from?

Health care? Maybe, but that should scare us. Health care is a major source of consumer inflation - the growth of health care comes with a major cost.

*****************

Like What You're Reading? Click Here to Subcribe To Our RSS Feed!

New Blog - Apple Aperture

2010-02-16T12:22:00.004-05:00

Just an FYI to anyone who may care - I started a new site about Apple's Aperture photo editing and management software.

P.S. Read my review of Why I Fight by BJ Penn and about other MMA books.

P.S. 2 - Read Scarsdale Patch!

*****************

Like What You're Reading? Click Here to Subcribe To Our RSS Feed!

TheStreet.com Reports Q2/Q3 Earnings

2010-01-26T10:12:00.005-05:00

Talk about your all-time turnarounds!

TheStreet.com (TSCM) is trading up about 20% today after getting nearly caught up on its delayed earnings reports. While the company didn't give full Q4 numbers, it did deliver its Q2 and Q3 numbers from 2009.

And even I have to admit that they're pretty damn good - the stock was even upgraded at JMP Securities.

Here's the key statement from CEO Darryl Otte:

“Bookings in our paid services have seen double-digit percentage increases in the second half of 2009 as compared to the prior year period, after having been down in the first half. As bookings are the precursor to higher paid services revenue, this positions us well for 2010. In addition to our strong bookings performance since mid-year, we are pleased that our subscriber counts have risen each quarter after March 2009.

The company really could have gotten away with this statement alone, but the numbers themselves are pretty good:

net cash balance of $83 million
positive EBITDA for year
bookings growth of 10-13% in Q4

Frankly, I'm pretty shocked. I imagined they would have bled subscribers to their newsletter offerings throughout 2009, especially since they lost Ron Insana. I still think the company's far too reliant upon Jim Cramer, but I can't argue with the company's performance. I want to buy this stock, which is basically trading at cash.

P.S. Visit GadgetStocks.com!

*****************

Like What You're Reading? Click Here to Subcribe To Our RSS Feed!

Podcast Appearance with Frank Curzio

2010-01-21T20:40:00.002-05:00

I just wanted to give you good folks a heads-up: I recently appeared on my good buddy Frank Curzio's podcast on S&A Investor Radio. Frank and I worked together at TheStreet.com (TSCM) and he's the best in the business when it comes to low-dollar stocks.

We chat about all the fun stuff: Google (GOOG), Apple (AAPL), video games.

Click here to listen.

*****************

Like What You're Reading? Click Here to Subcribe To Our RSS Feed!

TheStreet.com Announces Earnings Date

2010-01-21T20:32:00.003-05:00

Good news for shareholders of TheStreet.com (TSCM) and interested observers.

The house that Jim Cramer built just announced that after long delays, it will be reporting earnings for the second and third quarters of 2009 on Monday, January 25th. It will not be reporting Q4 numbers along with these.

TheStreet.com delayed its earnings reports because of issues regarding revenue recognition from Promotions.com, an advertising services firm it recently sold for $3.1 million. Hopefully, the elimination of Promotions.com will smooth things out on the accounting side - I can only speculate that the company delayed earnings so many times to ensure that it wasn't breaking any rules.

Regardless, I'm awfully curious to see how the company handled the aftermath of last year's market lows. I'm sure that advertising took some kind of hit, and that plenty of subscribers to the company's newsletters dropped out of the market.

And obviously, while the company doesn't provide guidance, Google (GOOG) did say just this afternoon on its earnings call that finance was not a strong vertical. That could be a bad omen for TSCM.

*****************

Like What You're Reading? Click Here to Subcribe To Our RSS Feed!

New Site - GadgetStocks.com

2010-01-20T11:51:00.003-05:00

Hi all, I'm sorry I haven't been very active lately but I've been planning a new site on tech investing called GadgetStocks.com. It's pretty bare-bones, but I just posted my first piece on the current Microsoft/Google/Apple dustup.

*****************

Like What You're Reading? Click Here to Subcribe To Our RSS Feed!

Jim Cramer vs. Wall Street Cheat Sheet

2009-11-02T11:11:00.001-05:00

Watch out Jim Cramer: Wall St. Cheat Sheet is cranking up the heat!

Last week, WSCS wrote a widely-circulated post explaining that according to Jim Cramer’s own investment rules (as published in his books), TheStreet.com (TSCM) stock should be sold immediately.

Here are some of the details:

In his books, Cramer says to dump stocks when executives depart suddenly or companies miss their filings. Therefore, once The Street “failed to produce their 10-Q filing for the second quarter” and executives started jumping ship, an honest Cramer would have been forced to “Sell, Sell, Sell.”

Harsh stuff, and Jim fired back, asking the Cheat Sheet to apologize and remove the post. That only served to fan the flames, because WSCS is back again lampooning Cramer for his recommendation of CIT (CIT), which declared bankruptcy over the weekend and now trading at 28 cents:

As you can see in the chart above, Cramer recommended to buy CIT at the exact top. Thus, if “In Cramer You Trust” (like the CNBC commercials tell you to do), you are probably going to have lost 90+% of your investment by the open on Monday.

When Jim reads this he will probably email me again and ask me to remove the post and apologize to him. I suggest his remaining viewers email him and ask him to remove his stock picks from Mad Money and TheStreet.com as well as apologize. If Cramer was an honest guy and didn’t pathologically believe his own spin, he would add himself to his Wall of Shame.

As a highly visible member of the financial media, Jim’s is wide open to these types of attacks. Whether or note you agree with them, there’s no doubt that it comes with the territory – especially when wacky penny stocks like CIT are in the picture. The Jon Stewart encounter was a total disaster, and Jim would be wise to ignore these types of attacks.

To Wall St. Cheat Sheet’s credit, this is very effective marketing, and the more Jim fights them, the more visitors they’ll get.

Will Jim Cramer fire back? It would be entertaining if he did, but also potentially disastrous.

Bought Put Spreads on Electronic Arts (ERTS)

2009-10-20T10:49:00.001-04:00

Hello all, I’ve been working on BrokerSense.com quite a bit and traveling so I haven’t had much time to update this site. However, I did put on a new trade this morning:

I bought a vertical put spread on Electronic Arts (ERTS), buying the December $20 puts and selling the December $18 puts. It isn’t a huge trade for me – I’m risking roughly 2% of my capital on this transaction – but I do have a high degree of confidence in it.

September video-game sales were not impressive, and sports games are likely to continue slumping. The reason is simple – sports like pro football just aren’t growing very much, and sports games are being pushed aside for the mega-hot games like Activision’s (ATVI) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Money is still pretty tight and only the best of the best will sell in big numbers this holiday season. Electronic Arts just doesn’t have anything in that category.

Tech stocks are also rolling over despite Apple’s (AAPL) monster earnings report yesterday, signaling that the broader market rally could be coming to an end. For companies with perpetually declining earnings estimates, that’s a very bad omen.

Bruce Wasserstein Passes Away

2009-10-14T19:49:00.001-04:00

Bruce Wasserstein, one of the all-time investing banking heavyweights, just passed away. The Lazard (LAZ) CEO was recently hospitalized with an irregular heartbeat, though his cause of death remains undetermined.

The question now becomes, can anyone remaining at Lazard fill his shoes? Bruce brought in an awful lot of talented bankers since joining the company but his value couldn’t possibly be measured.

He also leaves behind a legacy. For better or worse, he was one of the architects of the mega-deal age of investment banking in the 1980’s at First Boston, and later, at Wasserstein Perella.

My heart goes out to his family.

First Post on BrokerSense.com

2009-09-28T12:40:00.001-04:00

I just wanted to let the readers of this blog know that I made my first post on BrokerSense.com, my new blog focused on online brokers. Entitled Barron’s Takes on Optionetics, I discussed this weekend’s Barron’s story on OptionsXpress’ Optionetics educational division. Barron’s thinks it’s a red flag for the stock, but I feel otherwise.

I’m designing BrokerSense as a portal to help investors and traders pick out the right broker for them. With dozens of brokers boasting hundreds or even thousands of features, it’s a pretty tough task for people to differentiate one from the next - especially beginners. I have a number of research projects underway that will streamline the process.

BrokerSense is fairly bare-bones at the moment, but I’ll be building it out bit-by-bit every day, adding blog posts, industry data, and broker comparisons. And if you’re a blogger/webmaster, I would greatly appreciate links to BrokerSense.com.

full disclosure: I am long OptionsXpress (OXPS) and I bought more this morning.

Jim Cramer’s Getting Back to Even

2009-09-15T19:53:00.001-04:00

Just caught this - my old boss Jim Cramer is releasing a new book entitled Jim Cramer's Getting Back to Even. Here is an excerpt from Amazon.com’s (AMZN) description;

In his new book, Cramer offers the most detailed guidance he has ever given on how to invest in a changed market. Savvy investors will not just survive; they will thrive. Cramer begins with six rules for protecting the money you have and making sure that you have the money you need. (Rule Number 3: Skip the first four stages of portfolio grief: denial, anger, bargaining, and depression.) Your portfolio won't fix itself; you have to do that. It's easy to close your eyes and pretend that it all never happened, but you'll never get back to even that way, much less profit from the opportunities that this new market offers to investors who know where to put their money. One key to making investment decisions is to watch what the mutual-fund managers are doing and -- better yet -- to anticipate their moves. Cramer tells you how to do this. Their decisions will move markets, and you want to profit from these moves.

When I started out at TheStreet.com (TSCM), one of the first things I did was read Jim’s autobiography, Confessions of a Street Addict. It is by far and away one of the best Wall Street books of all time – particularly when Jim discussed volatile years like 1991 and 1998. And unlike many hedge fund superstars, Jim isn’t afraid to show his dark side. Best of all – you can pick it up for just a few bucks on Amazon.

I’m eager to see how Jim’s insights on how to navigate the post-crash market, and whether his current bullish view of the economy /stock market is reflected in the book.

To read more about the book: Jim Cramer's Getting Back to Even

Amazon.com and HSBC Not Playing Together Nicely

2009-09-14T19:29:00.001-04:00

Just an FYI if you’re a fellow HSBC (HBC) customer shopping at Amazon.com (AMZN):

According to HSBC customer service, the bank has a glitch in their system that is making it reject transactions made at Amazon.com. My Mastercard debit card was turned down for a few small purchases today, resulting in vivid fantasies of my identity being hijacked, along with my life savings. I was worried I’d have to drain some money out of my thinkorswim account!

I was a bit annoyed at first, but I can’t really complain about HSBC. Servers go down, software gets glitchy, and things just break sometimes. Besides, HSBC has never screwed me with stupid bank fees, and I once got a free ride in the HSBC cab.

HSBC said it will reset my account, so hopefully things will get back to normal soon.

Thinkorswim Software Platform Update

2009-09-12T08:50:00.001-04:00

Thinkorswim updated its software platform today to version 1446, and a number of new features will be implemented. I’m most excited by the ‘Fly on the Wall’ news feed, the chat room, and the addition of a new user manual under the Help tab.

Here are all the new features:

General:

'Fly on the Wall' news feed for live market-moving information
vertical scroll bars and flex layout control for Market View
new Market Cast chat room
icon for earnings announcements, conference calls and dividends on quote lists

Active Trader:

multi-level OCO orders allow scaling out of positions
complex OCO order relations linked in trade ladder window
auto-center delay on price ladder
new price link "Ave Prc" for conditional orders based on the average execution price on an order

Position Statement:

group positions by account in Total Account mode
in-the-money icon for ITM options at any time before expiration (configured via the Setup pane)

Analyze: import/export positions on Analyze tab

Charts:

resize vertical (y-) axis with click and drag
scroll vertical axis with Ctrl-Click and drag (Command-Click on Mac)
different order types and multiple instances of similar order types slash-separated on pills
trailing stop indicator is displayed at its current stop price
undo/redo (Ctrl-Z & Ctrl-Shift-Z) feature for drawing tools
extend vertical time levels through sub graphs
change order of lower study windows
preview and rename study sets
pick and apply individual studies and strategies from a defined set
new studies: Option Delta, Option Gamma, Option Theta, Option Vega, and Option Rho, and Major Gann Levels
new alerts studies: CloseLocationValue, EhlersDistantCofficientFilter, ElliotOscillator, LinearRegCurve, MovAvgWeighted, VolatilityStdDev, CCI and CCIAverage
thinkScript enhancements: AssignPriceColor function, new option-related functions, and MovAvgAdaptive, MovAvgRibbon, RibbonStudy, and TheoreticalOptionPrice are now translated into thinkScript

FX:

all FX orders that are working on the existing "FX Trading" tab will be imported in to thinkorswim orders and will appear on the Monitor tab
charts now include last trade price and volume data for all the FX executions for the past year
52 week high/low now available for FX

9/11

2009-09-10T22:28:00.001-04:00

September 11th is always a pretty rough day for me. I’m a die-hard New Yorker, and NYC hasn’t been the same since. I didn’t lose anyone close to me, except for some high school classmates that were more acquaintances than friends. But I’ll never get over the shock of standing on the 69th Street Pier in Brooklyn and watching those towers collapse.

When I was 15 years old, I landed a job as a delivery boy at Harry’s At Hanover Square, which is located in the Financial District. I only occasionally went to the World Trade Center for deliveries. But when I did, it was always a treat. The view from the 104th floor was nothing short of majestic – it was where I wanted to work when I grew up. It represented success.

Tomorrow, on September 11th, 2009, my father will have heart surgery to clear out a few blocked arteries. Maybe it will keep my mind off the tragic events of 9/11/01, but I doubt it.

Barron’s Top Independent Financial Advisers

2009-09-09T06:42:00.001-04:00

Barron’s recently posted a listing of its Top Independent Financial Advisers, as identified by the consulting firm Winner’s Circle. Here are the top 10:

1) John W. Rafal - Essex Financial Services

2) Ron Carson – Carson Wealth Management

3) Waldron Wealth Management

4) Mitchell D. Eichen – The MDE Group

5) Paul Tramontano – Constellation Wealth

6) Kevin Myeroff – NCA Financial Planners

7) Howard Sontag – Sontag Advisory

8) David Lees – myCIO Wealth Partners

9) D.K.Willardson – First American Trust

10) Dale Yahnke – Dowling & Yahnke

These listing are solid-gold marketing for any of the ranked advisers. But can they help any of us? The typical account these folks handle is in the millions, so I’d assume they can’t help you with your $22,000 401/K rollover.

However, I’d like to see Barron’s comingle its Top Independent Advisers ranking with its Top 100 Financial Advisers list to see who would really be on top.

See the rest of the list here

Bought Activision (ATVI) Call Spread

2009-09-08T18:21:00.001-04:00

Today I bought a call spread on Activision (ATVI), buying the October $12 call options and selling the October $13 calls against them. This is a fairly small trade, less than 1% of my trading account. If the stock ramps, I could triple the amount I put down. I considered making an outright purchase of put options, but decided to play it less aggressively.

Video-game stocks like GameStop (GME) and Take-Two Interactive (TTWO) have been acting pretty well lately, as have related names like Best Buy (BBY). According to my research, sales of recent new games like The Beatles: Rock Band and Guitar Hero 5 are looking pretty good, and pre-order activity for Halo 3: ODST and the new Call of Duty is through the roof.

And just an FYI – I’m holding my put option spreads on AIG (AIG). That stock is dropping like it has an anchor strapped to it. Rather than cash in, I’m content to ride the price action. In fact, I might build an even bigger bearish position using put spreads at lower strikes.

TradeKing Gets 5-Star Rating

2009-09-08T07:22:00.001-04:00

While I’m very happy trading stocks and options through Thinkorswim, I’m considering a second account with TradeKing. I have my doubts that TradeKing’s customer service is as good as Thinkorswim’s, but the commissions are dirt cheap. For options trades, TradeKing charges just $4.95 + 65 cents per contract. My current plan at Thinkorswim charges the lesser of 1) $2.95 per contract, or $9.95 + $1.50 per contract.

TradeKing was also just rated 5 stars by TopConsumerReviews.com, beating out the likes of Scottrade, OptionsXpress (OXPS), Sogo Trade, and Zecco. Not bad for a little guy.

Disclosure: I am an OptionsXpress shareholder

Google’s Gmail is Down Again

2009-09-04T11:12:00.001-04:00

Is this affecting anyone else? Google’s (GOOG) Gmail is not letting me in right now, displaying this message every time I try to do something:

This comes on the heels of Gmail’s recent server overload, which left millions without access to their email. I can live with the occasional service disruption, but twice in one week?

That said, Gmail is still light years ahead of Yahoo! Mail, which brings my computer to a grinding halt every time I use it. Firefox just seizes up when I log in. Yahoo’s email search function is also a complete failure. I can search for my girlfriend’s name and nothing comes up even though we’ve exchanged emails just about every day for the past two years. And according to what I’ve read online, I’m not the only person with that problem.

Update – I’m also having some trouble with Bit.ly!

Smart Money Discount Broker Survey – Where’s Thinkorswim?

2009-09-02T16:18:00.001-04:00

I just came across Smart Money’s 2009 discount broker survey, which ranks the most popular brokerage firms by categories like commissions, research, and customer service. E*Trade (ETFC) came out on top, with Fidelity and Charles Schwab (SCHW) rounding out the top 3.

However, I noticed that my broker of choice, thinkorswim, did not make it into the survey. You’d figure that the firm ranked #1 by Barron’s would make the cut.

Interactive Brokers (IBKR) also failed to make the cut. I found that a bit unusual given than thinkorswim is almost certainly bigger than companies like WallStreet*E and SogoTrade. And IB is just enormous – at least with active traders, though those guys probably don’t read Smart Money magazine.

I put an email into the good folks at Smart Money asking them if there’s any particular reason thinkorswim wasn’t included. I plan on giving thinkorswim a ring as well.

Maybe the merger with TD Ameritrade (AMTD) is a factor?

For now, here are the best discount brokers, as compiled by Smart Money. If I learn anything, I’ll post it here.

1) E*Trade (ETFC)

2) Fidelity

3) Charles Schwab (SCHW)

4) TradeKing

5) TD Ameritrade (AMTD)

6) Muriel Siebert

7) Scottrade

8) Firstrade

9) OptionsXpress (OXPS)

10) Banc of America (BAC)

11) Just2Trade

12) WellsTrade

13) ShareBuilder

14) WallStreet*E

15) Zecco Trading

16) SogoTrade

Disclosure: I am an OptionXpress (OXPS) shareholder

Take-Two Starting a Monster New Product Cycle

2009-09-02T13:20:00.001-04:00

Minyanville published a new article of mine - Take-Two Entering New Peak Product Cycle. It’s a summary of why I’m overwhelmingly bullish on Take-Two Interactive (TTWO).

Take-Two is at the cusp of a new product cycle that should generate enormous earnings and free cash flow growth over the next two years. With BioShock 2, Mafia 2, and Max Payne 3 scheduled for release next year, Take-Two should have no problem delivering outstanding growth.

Plus, Grand Theft Auto V should come in 2011, or perhaps even in late 2010, giving the company an enormous boost in profitability. The cash flow from that game alone could be greater than the company’s entire enterprise value. I own Take-Two common stock and vertical call spreads - and I plan on making these positions even bigger.