BAC In The Saddle

RECOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

BAC has taken a beating is down to $13.06/s. The only bright spot in our portfolio, as of now, is the 20% profit in ELP.

I motion that we sell ELP now for a 20% gain. Then, take the proceeds and buy 7 more shares of BAC at about $13.25/s. We'll dollar-cost average our BAC position from $20.25/s to $16.16/s and have about $40 remaining in our money market. With Patrick's confidence in ESLR, perhaps we can make a similar move with that company and be more poised for a bounce.

In conclusion, my vote is to sell ELP at a 20% gain and buy seven shares of BAC at $13.25/s or lower.

Down Goes Cramer!

I may watch Cramer once every few weeks. If I do, it's typically the late night repeat of that day's show. I did, however, happen to catch it while scrapping with the dogs moments ago. He, as well as callers, are complaining about natural gas, wind, coal and other alternative energies tanking in the last few weeks. A caller from New Hampshire (who actually said, "Greetings from Red Sox Nation...") asked about ESLR and cited Cramer's endorsement of the stock months ago. Cramer grimly responded, and I quote, "It's never too late to sell Evergreen Solar."

It will be interesting to see if Cramerica negatively impacts the share value before the market opens in the morning.

Money In The Rearview?

So I met with a client this week who is the CFO of a solar panel company. They came on board with my company when they had just seven employees and currently have 115 on payroll.

During our discussion, I asked him candidly about investing in solar power. He said that he has done very well over the past few years, but explained how the market has plateaued. He talked about the socially conscious consumers who ponied up tens of thousands of dollars for panel systems in the past. He went on to discuss that the costs for these comprehensive systems have not come down and affordability now is far more difficult. He stressed that the industry needs to take less profit per transaction and evolve into a more volume-based business model.

In 2003, plasma televisions came out and they were awesome. I'll never forget going to a good friend's house and his father had a 50" Pioneer Elite hanging on the wall. I looked the item up online and it was $9,999. Now, that current model is about $2,800 and is a far more advances product. If the solar power sector can adjust their costs and pass those savings to consumers, the industry will certainly thrive. However, in times of national layoffs and plunging investment portfolios, do you think this industry will thrive targeting residential accounts or will the commercial accounts be enough to keep them afloat without federal funding?

Are the boys BAC in town?

We received our third vote this afternoon at a time when BAC was trading at $20.12/s. Did we get the buy in at that price or did we jump on after it increased 2% and closed at $20.49/s?

Cement Cartel - CX raided...

This can't be good for CX.....

EU raids cement companies in cartel probe

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - EU antitrust regulators have raided cement companies it suspects formed an illegal cartel to hike prices for the building trade, the European Commission said Wednesday.
Mexico-based Cemex SAB, one of the world's largest building materials companies, Holcim of Switzerland, France's Lafarge and Germany's HeidelbergCement and Dyckerhoff all confirmed that their European plants were among those that received surprise visits from inspectors on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The EU executive said it had "reason to believe" that the companies it examined may have broken EU rules that outlaw price-fixing cartels and monopolies. But it stressed that it was still investigating and was not accusing the companies of illegal behavior.
The European Union has the power to levy billions of euros (dollars) in fines but usually gives an amnesty to the first company to come forward _ triggering a flood of cartel confessions in recent years.
HeidelbergCement _ which was fined 252 million euros by German regulators in 2003 for a previous cement cartel _ said it now tells employees to report any illegal antitrust activities such as cartels.
It said officials had raided its headquarters in Heidelberg, western Germany, as well as regional offices in Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
Also in Germany, Wiesbaden-based Dyckerhoff AG told the AP that EU investigators had arrived at its offices there on Tuesday and were still searching for evidence. They said their Luxembourg offices had also been raided.
Holcim spokesman Peter Gysel confirmed that EU regulators sprang surprise visits on Holcim Group companies in Belgium, Britain, France and Germany on Tuesday.
Lafarge spokeswoman Claire Mathieu said the company's Paris headquarters were visited Tuesday by EU antitrust investigators, and Lafarge was "fully cooperating" with the inquiry.
Cemex said Tuesday it was also cooperating with antitrust authorities and was providing all the information and testimony they wanted. It said its German and British offices had been raided.
______
Associated Press writers Matt Moore in Berlin, Brad Klapper in Geneva and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this story.

One Stock, Two Stock, Red Stock, Blue Stock...

With the dawn of change upon us, it makes sense for us to think about which type of stocks are going to be affected by the election of our next president. As most of you probably know, Obama has made it real clear that he intends on reducing the U.S. dependency of foreign oil - which in turn means the development of new sources of energy here in the U.S. Alternative energy stocks look to be a strong play if Obama is elected (and a good bet he will). If McCain wins, analysts believe utility stocks are the way to go because of the continued tax breaks they will recieve with a McCain administration.

With regard to ESLR, there's a good chance we see another surge in it's price in the next few days if Obama wins, so maybe we consider upping our sell target price?

History Repeats Itself History

So we were introduced to Peter Lynch's theory on the positive effect that downsizing has on stocks. The idea is that by cutting employees or closing stores, the remaining gears of the machine crank faster and more efficiently.

Today's example was no different. Electronics giant Circuit City opened the day trading at a quarter. After announcing they are closing the doors of 155 stores, the stock leaped by 38%.

When you see a story about a public company slashing jobs, selling assets or closing doors, take note of where the stock is traded and anticipate the results of the move. Although Circuit City isn't lighting the world on fire, we would take a 30% upswing any day.