March, 2007:

Book Review: Profit From Uranium

Mar 23rd, 2007
by Sean.
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This book talks about the growth and opportunities in Uranium. It illustrates the demand for Uranium and Uranium is the resource we should all buy now. After reading this book, I became more interested in investing in Uranium.

For specific investments, the book recommends buying BHP Billiton (BHP), Rio Tinto plc (RTP), Cameco (CCJ) and United States Enrichment Corporation (USU). Uranium is becoming more scarce and the price of Uranium only has one direction to go – up.

The book also talks about The Investment U’s Philosophy to a successful investing. One principle is a Trailing Stop Strategy of 25%. This is when you put a trailing stop of 25% on a stock to protect your profits or limit your losses from 25% off the peak. Another principle is Position Sizing. You should not have more than 2% of your portfolio in any individual stock. And the other principles are Emotionless Investing and Asset Allocation.

The book was easy to read and short enough to finish in a short time. It took me a few days, because I read it only during my train rides, but it could be finished in one sitting.

Recommended: Yes

Disclaimer: No compensation was received for this review. The contents on the post are entirely opinions of the blogger.

Noble Corp. (NE) Analysis

Mar 22nd, 2007
by Sean.
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Noble Corp (NE) is a leading off-shore drilling company and is expected to earn $1.2 billion, or $8.98 this year. Its valuation is at a 10-year low. The company announced to buy back 15.3 million shares, or 11% of the outstanding stock. There is tremendous upside potential with strong support on the downside. The reward/risk ratio is huge, meaning high rewards for low risk. Take a look at the fundamentals, analysts’ opinions, company news, and third party research reports.

Fundamentals:
VALUATION MEASURES (from Yahoo Finance)

Market Cap (intraday): 10.82B
Enterprise Value (22-Mar-07): 11.22B
Trailing P/E (ttm, intraday): 15.11
Forward P/E (fye 31-Dec-08): 6.44
PEG Ratio (5 yr expected): 0.18
Price/Sales (ttm): 5.04
Price/Book (mrq): 3.28
Enterprise Value/Revenue (ttm): 5.34
Enterprise Value/EBITDA (ttm): 9.376

News and Opinions:

FBR: Our Favorite Stock Is Noble

Noble Signs 2-Year Pact With Marathon

Correction Bargains

Noble: A Smart Drill Bet

Noble OKs buyback of additional 10 mln shares

Research Reports:

NE – Company Research Highlights (pdf)

NE – Compustat Company Research (pdf)

NE – First Call Earnings Valuation Report (pdf)

NE – Standard & Poor’s (pdf)

NE – Thomson Financial (pdf)

Brooklyn New Condos

Mar 22nd, 2007
by Sean.
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My father saw an ad for new condos in Brooklyn. The ad displays one 1600 sq. ft. duplex for $438,000. We went to an open house last Sunday. We found out the sellers misled us. The prices were different (see below). In any case, we looked at all the units for sale. All the units we looked at were on the walk-in floor and were duplexes. The top floor hosted the kitchen, living room, and bedrooms. There was an internal circular staircase that leads to the basement. The 1600 sq. ft. apartments had huge basements. The two bedrooms had two baths. The bathrooms were all titled up, making it easy to clean. The master bedroom had a bathroom with a shower stall instead of a bathtub. The best thing about the condo was the location to mass transportation. It was only a five minute walk to the D train on 71st. My father likes the short walk to the train, but he didn’t like the layouts of the apartments, and that’s the end of the story.
Here are the prices from the sheet they gave us:

The Bay Ridge Condominium
#A – 2 Beds, 2 Baths 1638 sq. ft. $479,000
#B – 2 Beds, 2 Baths 1638 sq. ft. $479,000
#C – 1 Bed, 1 Bath 508 sq. ft. $269,000
#D – 2 Beds, 2 Baths 1638 sq. ft. $479,000
#E – 2 Beds, 2 Baths 1350 sq. ft. $459,000

Free Magazines Giveaway

Mar 21st, 2007
by Sean.
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Is there such a thing as free lunch? Probably not. But I’m offering free past issues of financial magazines. I’ll even pay for shipping charges. Sometimes it’s hard to give away things because people are skeptical. And if I tell you there’s no catch, you won’t believe me. So I’m going make a catch for you, to settle your skepticism. I will send you the magazines on my dime and in return you’ll promise me that you read them. For proof, you’ll have to submit to me at least one post about what you’ve read in the magazines. I will publish your post and let people see that I’m indeed giving out free magazines.

Why am I doing this? It’s a way of giving back to society, and at the same time, I want people to educate themselves about personal finance and investing.

I have past issues of SmartMoney, BusinessWeek, Forbes, and more. Some of them contain really good articles. If you are interested in past issues of financial magazines, let me know. Sorry, you don’t get to pick which issues you want. I’ll just mail out the issues I have.

The Apprentice Los Angeles

Mar 20th, 2007
by Sean.
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I like watching The Apprentice. I can get a lot of ideas from that show and learn a lot from the people. The first season inspired me to think about ideas that can make money. My Money Idea #1 and Money Idea #2 were inspired by the projects in the first season. The lemonade sale, albeit its simplicity, motivated me to become an entrepreneur .

I have been watching The Apprentice Los Angeles but haven’t had time lately so I watch the episodes online whenever I have time. I’ve caught up to Episode 7 now. The contest in that episode was to create a luxury event for Lexus. Arrow won, of course. It was no surprise to me. I hope I haven’t ruined this episode for anyone.

I thought Arrow did an outstanding job of presenting the luxury image to the preferred customers. Kinetics idea of go-cart sounded fun, but as its own team pointed out, go-carts did not carry a luxury image. Mr. Trump was very huge on image. He definitely did not like Derek’s mention of “white trash,” even as a joke. You know he’s business.
I thought Aimee was going to be fired because the votes were unanimous. Now that they knocked two people out of the show, does it mean the show will end sooner?

As for my thoughts on the candidates, so far, I think Heidi, Stefani and Frank are the best. I shall see them make it to the end.

Free Dunkin’ Donut Coffee This Wednesday

Mar 20th, 2007
by Sean.
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Starbucks has competition.

Dunkin’ Donut offers free Coffee on 3/21/07.

DVD: Wall Street

Mar 19th, 2007
by Sean.
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Wall Street is about a bright, young stock broker, Bud Fox trying to make it to rich and fame. On his way he finds a shortcut, and his whole life gets affected by it.

The story begins with a normal work day for Bud. He walks to his office and finds his little tiny desk space and starts making cold calls, all day. He gets rejected more times than he can count, but that is the life of a stock broker.

He realizes he would need to take an order from a whale (a.k.a. someone loaded with money) to make big bucks. But he is at the bottom of the workforce, how can he talk to the big money man? Through his wits, he figures out a clever way to meet with him in person. And that one meeting changes his life. He goes from the bottom of the class to the top.

Then he realizes things aren’t so easy at the top. Sometimes the business even gets “dirty.” Eventually he realizes he isn’t happy about what he is doing, despite earning more money. Consequences of his previous actions catches on. And things start to fall apart in his life.

He finally sees the whole picture and realizes his mistakes. He decides to turn everything around. At the end, he does what is right.

I thought the movie was really good. It reminded me of Boiler Room, which was actually based off this movie. For those interested in taking short cuts to big bucks, I recommend watching Boiler Room and Wall Street.

Monday Mornings

Mar 19th, 2007
by Sean.
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Going back to work on Mondays is tough for me, but I’m sure I’m not alone. The weekend always feel too short. And during the weekend, I usually sleep late. I usually do not get enough rest on Sunday nights. By Monday morning, I’m tired and sleepy. It would be nice if I can show up at 11am on Monday morning and make up those hours during the week.

How do you battle your Monday mornings?

Sunday’s Quote

Mar 18th, 2007
by Sean.
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It’s good to have money and the things that money can buy, but it’s good, too, to check up once in a while and make sure that you haven’t lost the things that money can’t buy. – George H. Lorimer

Saturday’s Quote

Mar 17th, 2007
by Sean.
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While the law of competition may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it ensures the survival of the fittest in every department. – Andrew Carnegie, The Gospel of Wealth, 1889

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