Jim:
I, for one, have missed your posts. My responsibility here (it's soooo lonely at the top) is to safeguard the thread so it remains an interchange entrepot of good questions, good hypotheses and good ideas. Nada mas. Occasional, passing commentary on politics, etc. (the stupid pledge decision, stupid in all its aspects and a pox on all parties, imho) are fine unless they derail the thread.
Ray might be happy to post 25 times a day here but that would change the nature of the thread, and drive away most of the people I value, and it would simply create another Balkanized thread which might even drive you away. Nobodaddy wants that, Jimbo. I agree, Krugman's piece was fine, but it was preceded by a lot of politcal stuff and then followed by the exact same article with Ray's "helpful" boldface.
I thought it better to act sooner than later, if only to keep my p.m. box relatively clear.
For better or worse, this is a site about trying to make a buck, immoral as that may seem to a few.
As for Martha, I was only trying to figure out whether or not her peccadillo was going to give me a buying oppo in the stock, or whether it was going to be her unravelling. As I said, I can pretty much understand what she might have done and why. I like Martha, I think she's smart, and if she did try to beat the market with insider information then she should disgorge those ill-gotten gains (to go along with the personal $400 million hit she's taken to her personal portfolio in MSO). I bet she didn't realize when she made herself the brand that she'd have to keep it sooooo virginal to keep what she made.
I was actually hoping for a fundamental type to look at MSO and determine what the likely damage was going to be to the income statement from whatever lost revenues she might suffer, which in turn would probably depend on whether or not she can go in and get her wrists slapped by people who want to be known as the Martha Stewart prosecutor, or whether she is going to be hung out to dry.
As I noted, I was the recipient of shares in an IPO where my friend was the CEO. When the shares started dropping it was really my securities law training which kept me from calling up Prez and asking should I hold or fold. There's a little sense of loyalty and gratitude for being included in the offering which makes the phone call a logical, if dangerous, step.
My technical take on MSO is to steer clear for the summer and fall unless we get a blast furnace style meltdown to $5, since I don't believe all the sellers have exited the stock, and I'd expect it to trade in sympathy with Martha's [mis]fortunes for a while.
Kb |
