Insomniac Hedge Fund Guy

Apple’s stock fell to another new low point of its current crash, closing at $420.15. Its an incredible decline for the stock which was at $700 in September.If you want a rational reason for the stocks decline, we have a few ideas: Investors are worried about the rise of Android, Apples margins collapsing, the lack of a mega product in the works, and the post-Steve Jobs era. via CHART OF THE DAY: Apple Market Cap – Business Insider.   In the spirit of full disclosure, I have to say that we liquidated 60% of our Apple holdings last week.  We … Read more

Ackman-Icahn Feud Flowchart – Business Insider. My best advice is don’t get involved in this but it certainly  makes great entertainment.

3 Signs Stocks May Be Near a Top By MICHAEL KAHN The trend is up, but investors should pay attention to indicators that, historically, have marked the end of a bull run.ArticleComments 3EmailPrintReprints smallerLargerTechnical analysis is the study of data generated by the market and the actions of those participating in the market. Price patterns and trends are by far the stars, but the supporting cast should not be ignored, even if it has been crying wolf for some time.Right now, the supporting cast of volume, sentiment and time may not be calling a top in the market, but those … Read more

The next Investment Survival Workshop for 2013 will be February  12th at the Grub Steak at 6:00PM.  Come learn how the pros manage money.  As soon as the Street learned Apple CEO, Tim Cook would be seated next to Michelle Obama during the SOU, the stock went down. Find out why. No Products or Services are sold at these workshops.  They are for qualified investors with at least $500,000 of liquid assets.   If you haven’t been to one of these workshops you are missing the most informative investment experience you will likely have all year.  The feedback has been … Read more

According to the Washington Service his average return is 158% and he’s right 77.8% of the time.  That’s impressive.  So we took note of his recent purchase of 50,000 AKAM at an average price of $335.31 after the recent earnings announcement price evisceration.

We used to bring in mutual fund wholesales at PaineWebber where I worked as a SVP.  One day while the wholesaler was giving his introduction to the class of wet behind the ear’s brokers, I interrupted his presentation. “Every time you come in here, you tell us about your best performing mutual funds.  I want to do something different this time.  Tell us about your worst performing funds.  We keep selling your best performing funds to our clients and they turn into your worst performing funds.  Let’s start with the worst first and maybe we’ll have better luck.” I said … Read more

By MATTHEW FUTTERMAN Reuters Ted Ligety, above, Sarah Hendrickson and Mikaela Shiffrin are strong medal contenders for the U.S. at the Sochi Games. Park City, Utah Most People who saw the footage of American all-everything skier Lindsey Vonn somersaulting over the snow on an Austrian mountain this week, shredding her knee ligaments and breaking her tibia in the process, figured they had just seen the end of the U.S. Olympic team’s chances at next year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi. Put away the star-spangled cowbells. Leave Old Glory at the bottom of the mountain. Cue up your favorite recording of Mozart’s … Read more

We hear a lot about insiders selling this market.  That’s true but there is some buying going.  The most notable is below.  And the most notable of these is the big Yum Brands buy of $2.2 million. YUM YUM! BRANDS INC WALTER ROBERT D 0/1 Dir 2/6/13 Purchase 35,000 $61.95 $2.2M AET AETNA INC ROHAN KAREN S 1 VP 2/6/13 Purchase 4,035 $49.53 $199.9K TGI TRIUMPH GROUP INC SILVESTRI JOSEPH 5/5 Dir 2/4/13 Purchase 8,000 $68.99 $551.9K TSN TYSON FOODS INC KEVER JIM D 1/1 Dir 2/6/13 Purchase 10,000 $23.37 $233.7K CPSI COMPUTER PROGRAMS &… DOUGLAS JOHN JR 2/2 CEO … Read more

This is really a brilliant idea  David Einhorn has and if Apple doesn’t do it, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see some other companies with lots of cash flow give it a shot.  If it works for one, then you could see a floodgate open up.  This could actually power up the next leg in a bull market.  But then again if companies like Apple, Microsoft, Cisco and others that have enormous reliable cash flow can issue preferred stock that trades at much higher multiples, why doesn’t the underlying common dividend  paying stocks themselves have a higher multiple. … Read more

By Mark Hulbert This is worrisome because corporate insiders — officers, directors and the largest shareholders — presumably know more about their companies’ prospects than the rest of us do. If they were confident that the shares of their companies would soon be trading markedly higher, they wouldn’t be selling them now.Yet selling they are — at an alarming pace. via Insiders now aggressively bearish – Mark Hulbert – MarketWatch. Readers of the Sax Angle know that Ive brought this to their attention earlier.  We still find a a few oddball items to buy but this is one reason we … Read more

Miller maintains an appetite for Apple By Dan McCrum Legg Mason’s Bill Miller and his co-portfolio manager, Samantha McLemoreInvestors have Apple all wrong, according to Bill Miller. The best performing mutual fund manager last year thanks to big bets on unloved stocks, he says the world’s largest listed company could be worth 50 per cent more. via Miller maintains an appetite for Apple – FT.com. What It Takes To Be A True Value Investor FEBRUARY 6, 2013 BY THE GURU INVESTOR  0 COMMENTS In a recent CNBC interview, New York University Professor Aswath Damodaran discusses Apple’s valuation, and in the … Read more

The federal government wants to create super WiFi networks across the nation, so powerful and broad in reach that consumers could use them to make calls or surf the Internet without paying a cellphone bill every month.The proposal from the Federal Communications Commission has rattled the $178 billion wireless industry, which has launched a fierce lobbying effort to persuade policymakers to reconsider the idea, analysts say. That has been countered by an equally intense campaign from Google, Microsoft and other tech giants who say a free-for-all WiFi service would spark an explosion of innovations and devices that would benefit most Americans, … Read more

This chart from the Washington Service, the premier firm tracking insider activity, shows that insiders are selling sock at a record level.  Whatever you might say about the predictive nature of this, it’s not a good thing that the people that know the companies the best don’t perceive them to be good values.

There have been rumblings about a new smaller Apple TV.  It doesn’t sound like a big deal in the press but Apple just made available an Apple TV software upgrade. In the newest release for Apple TV it made some minor additions to Music Match but added one very telling feature that will open up a much bigger role for IOS devices to take over the remote control and share content across devices and any TV connected to its very affordable Apple TV; namely support for bluetooth keyboards.  At first that doesn’t sound so groundbreaking but now you can use … Read more

By ANDREW BARY | MORE ARTICLES BY AUTHOR At 14,009, the Dow is within a hair’s breadth of its all-time high, set in 2007. Why the market could hit 15,000 this year—or more. Energy stocks and financials could lead the way. The party is far from over. The early-year rally that on Friday took the Dow Jones Industrial Average to within 1% of its record high, set in 2007, could have a lot further to run. For starters, stocks aren’t expensive. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index is valued at about 14 times estimated 2013 profits and the Dow fetches less than … Read more

Amazon misses revenues, misses earnings, lowers 1st quarter guidance and stock surges 9% after hours after announcing an operating income of $405 million.  Gee, Amazon makes $400 million stock surges $4 billion in market cap.  Apple makes over $23 billion in operating earnings and stock loses $56 billion in market cap.

ECONOMIC VIEWA New Housing Boom? Don’t Count on ItBy ROBERT J. SHILLERPublished: January 26, 2013We are beginning to hear noises that we’ve reached a major turning point in the housing market — and that, with interest rates so low, this is a rare opportunity to buy. But are such observations on target?Enlarge This Image Minh Uong/The New York TimesEnlarge This Image Minh Uong/The New York TimesIt would be comforting if they were. Yet the unfortunate truth is that the tea leaves don’t clearly suggest any particular path for prices, either up or down. via Housing Market’s Future Still Has Many … Read more

A Jaw-Dropping Statistic On The Difference In Profitability Between Apple And Amazon Jay Yarow | Jan. 24, 2013, 11:43 AM | 90,515 | Heres Why The Market Loves Amazon And Hates AppleWall Street Analysts React To The Apple Earnings Armageddon No Phablet For You, Says Apple CEO Tim Cook We just explained why the market currently loves Amazon and hates Apple.One of the reasons this drives Apple lovers crazy is that Apples profits are significantly bigger than Amazons.”Significantly” might not be a strong enough word for the difference between the two companies profits. via Amazons Profits Versus Apple – Business … Read more

Missed the Big Fight? Watch It Now Bill Ackman and Carl Icahn square-off live and insult each other on CNBC’s “Fast Money Halftime” over a past deal gone bad and disagreements about current investments in Herbalife. This is the complete, unedited conversation. Call them the “Bickering Billionaires,” two financial titans who squared off in a breathtaking, unforgettable smackdown Friday on CNBC. Bill Ackman, the head of Pershing Square Capital Management and its $12 billion in assets, squared off against Carl Icahn, the fellow activist investor and one of the richest men in America with an estimated fortune of nearly $15 … Read more