Touch & Go

Guys good morning. Since we launched over eighteen months ago, I admit I am much more dialed into market activity on a day to day basis. Not only is it a great way to make money, but daily market fluctuation is a great indicator of the state of our nation.

Dell's numbers were released this week and "revenue was mostly lower on sales to large businesses, which tumbled 23% from a year earlier. Small- and medium-sized businesses fell 19%... About 80% of Dell's sales come from business customers." Let the dust settle over the next few weeks and pay attention to Dell ramping up marketing for the holidays. Perhaps the stock will be in better shape for our next meeting.

HNT has crept up to touch $20/s, which equates to a 30% gain in our pockets (including selling commissions). Although some of us opted to sell the stock a few months ago, there was a time where we voted unanimously to purchase it. HNT is within pennies of its 52-week high, but I am not yet comfortable selling out of it. We bought into it originally to saddle up and ride out the health care socialization movement, but I wanted to bring its progress to our attention. Keep an eye on it and share feedback, as the holidays are a crazy time to watch the stock market.

Any ideas to throw some of our money market cash into another position? Maybe grab a single share of a low-cost blue chip? Are the days gone when we proactively talk turkey throughout the quarter or are we on hiatus until a week before our next meeting?

DUDE!! I got a Dell!

My pick for 4Q 2009 is Dell (Nadaq:DELL). We all know who and what Dell is so I'll spare you the full background. My reason for the pick is a mixture of a holiday gift play, and a play on the economic recovery in 2010. With the affordability of computers and with Dell's brand name, I think there will be solid sales in 2009's holiday season that will be realized when they announce their results in January. While some may be skeptical of that, there is another reason to buy into Dell - that being their A-List of corporate clients and businesses that stand by the Dell brand for their companies. There will be a natural increase in corporate purchasing when hiring picks up in 2010, and companies will stay loyal to Dell because if you have 1000 employees using Dell laptops, you aren't going to switch the next 500 over to another brand.

Dell is now trading around the mid $14's. It is a profitable company with the best management in the industry - headed by its founder Michael Dell. and has nearly $10B cash on hand. They are currently making strategic acquisitions to broaden their portfolio of services. This is a safe tech/retail play, and with all the buzz surrounding windows 7, this seems like a good time to own some Dell!

Hello Moto

My stock pick for this final quarter of 2009 is Motorola (MOT). You may have heard of this company - they make cell phones. Say what you want about the quality of your moto of the past, I'm looking toward the future here. The smart phone war is full in effect right now and everyone is looking for the next iphone. Google launched its Android platform late last year to compete with the apple platform. As all of us know, The first few Android based phones did not fair so well because they were released on shitty carriers like sprint and t-moble. But finally Verizon has gotten into the mix and the Droid will be the first phone sold exculsively by Verizon. Motorola is a bit late getting into the game - but so far the Droid has gotten some stellar reviews. Just in time for the holiday shopping period - I think the Droid will sell. If i'm gonna bet on any two companies to put a good fight with apple - i'd take my chances on Verizon and Google.

Moto is selling right now around $9 a share - right in our wheel house. And if we get on it now, we may be able to take advantage of the holiday sales and hopefully make ourselves some money. Its a bit of a risk going in on a company that has struggled as of late to hold their market share on cell phones, but they have done some streamlining their product line in the past few years and focused their concentration on the smart phones and mobile computing. I think this investment is a good opurtunity for us to get in on a rising smart phone platform (Google) and hopefully catch Motorola on its way back up the cell phone food chain.

Looking forward to hearing everyone elses picks for this qtr. One final note - please try and send me your money tomorrow - no later than thursday so we can have the funds in place for Monday morning. See you boys on Sunday!