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Technology Stocks : Ampex Corp. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nosaj who wrote (5760)	10/23/2008 8:57:33 PM
From: Hal Campbell	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5839

I'm in the midst of the REIT meltdown, Frank...lol. In to WRI at 21.93(9.5% yield). Then at 20...then 18.8. Underwater but pulling a big dividend. Unless the recession is truly unprecedented...and there's always a chance of that...the good REITS like WRI, WRE, HCP etc...there are many others...are exteremely good long term buys here....but in the short to medium term, I have no idea.I may have to hold a long time. And I may go deeper underwater still. Really very little money involved...just warming up.So nothing to brag about.Or worry about too much. I'm just barely beginning to follow broader markets..haven't done that in years. Microsoft kinda jumped out so I bought it on the Friday of the market low and sold it the following monday for a very lucky 11.5% weekend gain. Lemme check prices...bought at 10/10 at 21.93. Sold 10/13 at 24.46. My only other trade was buying WRI during the July lows at 27.26 and selling a few months later at 36.83.....but has been pretty straight down for all REITs since. Finally nibbled again but did it too soon. Frank, my only suggestion it to look for deep value but don't try and do a short term trade unless you'd be willing to hold the stock awhile. This volatility is crazy. Speaking of crazy...I just did a little simple arithmetic. On the financial channels I hear a ton of blame being misdirected from Wall Street by various Wall Street talking heads (though not all by any means). So looked up some numbers...as best I could find em. At the end of 2007 there were 1.3 trillion in subprime mortagages outstanding in the US. Roughly 15 percent in default. Lets say there are 2 trillion now and lets double the default rate to 30%. That's an exaggerated total of 600 billion defaulted value. Figure those houses could be sold for at least half of the loan value...so an exaggerated max of 300 billion in losses for the whole shebang. Serious enough, but nothing to bring the world's economy to the brink of disaster. The government could have bought every mortgage in default for a whole lot less than they are putting out. It's what Wall Street did with those initial mortgages that created the snake oil 50 trillion swaps market...and Lord know how many trillions derivatives market. And they made a fortune doing it. And that is what the government feels they have to rescue to get credit moving again.... Blaming the bad mortgages themselves for the meltdown is like blaming a wandering mouse for the damage done by an elephant stampede. this is something else again, Frank......words fail me....