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SEC meeting today...one of the items on the agenda is how to regulate/monitor the wholesalers, like Citadel, which I hear controls 47% of market transactions. SEC Chairman was on CNBC this morning, some very interesting comments. I hope they will create a fairer market whereby small retail investors don't continue to get shafted. A true free, fair, and open market serves us all the best.
Elon Musk says Dogecoin is a joke, started "just because," and yet some so-called investors are now saying, he is just saying that to drive the price down so he and his cronies can buy more.
This is an example of that unpredictable factor that affects stock prices. Even when told, by one of the founders, Dogecoin was started as a joke, instead of immediately dumping all their shares and being mad they got duped, some (many!) concoct a conspiracy theory designed to mitigate their delusions. Well, then these so-called investors had better take a look, a hard look, at the facts. Namely, Dogecoin is not set up like true cryptocurrencies are, and thus has NO VALUE. First, there can be an unlimited number of coins, and secondly, Dogecoin does not have a mining mechanism in place. It is nothing but a Ponzi scheme. The ONLY value it can have is the willingness of new investors to continue to pour money into it and drive the share (coin) price up.
I figured this one would shoot up and I tried to buy in for a quick buy/sell but none of the trading platforms I use, like E Trade, support it. And this is why...it's a joke.
Many AT&T (T) long time shareholders are feeling betrayed. Why? I have held T since the early 1990's and have made a fortune on the divies. I keep a spreadsheet on all my holdings and went back and looked, wow! the generous divie has been very kind to me and my portfolio. T has always been one of the premier "dividend darlings" that smart investors have bought and held. It was paying a solid 6.3% divie and now the announcement is a cut down to 3.7%. But AT&T management had to right a mistake they made by buying Time Warner and have now dumped that mistake to the tune of a $53 million loss. Water under the bridge, and it would have been worse for AT&T to have clinged to that mistake (like schools do when they refuse to fire a lousy coach), yank that bandaid off, endure some short term pain and get on with rebuilding the brand...and the stock.
But the crying and whining is almost comical. Idiots dumping T stock "to show management my displeasure." Okay, cut off your nose to spite your face too. First, a short term drop to 3.7% divie is not the end of the world. Still a decent return vs. alternatives. Second, AT&T will be a stronger company, more competitive in its core business and gradual increases in the divies will follow in the months and years to come. And finally, word is all we T shareholders will be receiving some Discovery, Inc. shares as partial compensation. That has happened to me several times and I always came out great, often with the gifted shares of another company out-performing my original equity.
But the point is how stupid people are who get emotional about a stock or a company. Eff 'em all...as long as they make me money I don't give a rat's ass about any company or any stock. Betrayed? LOL. Grow up...
T got somewhat screwed by Trump when he put the DOJ on them for the TimeWarner merger. This delayed the merger and added cost all on the theory that it would be too powerful. He and his DOJ were proven wrong in court and now in the real world.
Oh...naughty man; bad, bad Orange Man strikes again.Originally Posted by Guisslapp
Of course, AT&T's management bears no responsibility for the poor decision to acquire TimeWarner in the first place....
Putting his thumb down on the wrong side of the scale of justice.Oh...naughty man; bad, bad Orange Man strikes again.
Of course, AT&T's management bears no responsibility for the poor decision to acquire TimeWarner in the first place....
T still will own 71% of Warner + Discovery, right?
Yes, T will own 71% of the new merger.
I didn't, and won't, join the rush of disgruntled T shareholders dumping their shares, upset over the divie cut. It'll still have a decent 3.7% divie and T should emerge a stronger company. And! we T shareholders will be getting some Discovery shares as compensation toward the cut in the divie. T is just one of 33 stocks I hold, it is NOT one I am overly concerned about.
I have to admit I sold all of mine when they were negotiating to buy Time Warner after they already purchased Direct TV. Just wasn't the company I researched and bought in the first place.
The AMC saga continues to be interesting. Yes, for full disclosure, I am a shareholder, but/and I urge each of you to open a position. Heck, buy just 10 shares for a hoot!
Latest news...
One of the hedge funds (Wanda) holding shares dumped over 30 million shares this past week. They sold over a four day period as the PPS approached $15, they dumped. They closed out by selling 16million shares the last day. During that period, as the price backed up some, retail investors were gobbling up the reduced priced shares. As a result, the price went from $14.50 to a close of $12.08 yesterday. Dumping 30 million shares in one week should have crushed the PPS, but it didn't. The Ape Army is growing and getting stronger.
Facebook shut down a page with thousands of members entitled "AMC Stock." On it folks were discussing the stock, how HFs manipulate the market, naked shares, etc...no explanation was given. But!! turns out Mark Zuckerburg's sister is on the BOD of Motley Fool (Motley Stool) and [drum roll please!] on the board of Citadel (Shitadel) #1 stock manipulator of AMC and other stocks, namely GME, LODE, NGL, and others.
The SEC, Gary Gensler, is promising reforms and new regulations against this unethical, immoral, and really ILLEGAL practices of these HFs. Pelosi has already stepped in to block Gensler's efforts, since she is in deep with Citadel and others. Of course she has to tread lightly, and so far has just danced around the edges, but it is clear she is trying to protect her own selfish, personal interests over those of millions of Americans and the greater good of a fair market. But, this is nothing new for the socialist elites...the pigs of Orwell's Animal Farm.
But, if more average investors will join the Ape Army we can make a difference. Right now the battleground happens to be AMC, but we are seeing the beginnings of other grassroot movements in other stocks/companies. It's shameful...unAmerican!...what these Wall Street firms, these hedge funds do.
NOTE: although I personally have no interest in shorting a stock, it is legal. I don't like the practice since it helps to destroy companies. But, that's not what we're talking about here. It's the use of naked shares, FAKE SHARES, and the use of "dark pools" to manipulate stock prices that we are railing against. This has to end! And, companies like Citadel need to either provide a service or announce itself as an investment firm...but not be able to do both. This is like a referee also being a player/coach of one of the teams playing the game!!!
As always, do your DD. There are bunch of videos on YouTube covering the AMC saga. Check it out.
The debt and the recent share dilution make AMC a hard pass for me.
Fair enough.
Just for clarification there has been no recent share dilution. AMC had kicked around the idea of issuing new shares, 55 million, I think was the number, but they haven't and have taken that option off the table. They did finish selling into the market the remainder of the float, 43 million shares, and generated $430+ million in cash for itself. That "dump" if you will, combined with Wanda's 30 million share dump should have wrecked the PPS. But it's had only a minimal effect on the price.
Now, I will say those Apes who are counting on astronomical returns...some say $100,000/share...will be disappointed. But, $500+ maybe approaching $1,000/share is very doable. Also, the HFs learned a valuable lesson from their GME experience and are employing every trick in the book to minimize their losses. They are being proactive and are on the offensive, using every dirty trick in the book. If, big IF, retail investors crack, the HFs will win. But, if retail investors hold (HODL) the losses for the hedgies will reach dizzying heights. While this is different from GME insomuch as the HFs are using different tactics, it is also having an adverse effect for them. At no time with GME did retail investors hold such a high percentage of the float, close to 90% for AMC, and also the HFs didn't create near as many naked shares for GME as they have for AMC. GME peaked at $483/share on an average of a mere 20 million shares daily average volume. AMC is smoking that with 96 million avg. daily volume.
GME was big.....$483/share. AMC is gonna be gigantic!
Or....it could fizzle and be an ordinary $20 stock. But, this is part of the fun!
What service(s) do y'all use for tracking and trading?
I use E Trade and TD Ameritrade. These are the only trading platforms I am currently using. I have the apps of Robinhood, Reddit, and Webull on my phone but I have not traded thru any of those, and probably won't. But they each offer some informational resources that are convenient when I am away from my laptop. I had a regular broker, which was A.G. Edwards at one time, but I closed that account years ago. Was too expensive and antiquated.
I have tried several trading advisory services over the years. Motley Fool used to be pretty good, but they have sold their souls to the big hedge funds, now Motley Stool. Most of the ones out promoting themselves, like Brownstone (Jeff Brown), are nothing but ripoff marketing/publishing schemes. After a lot, and I mean a lot, of looking I have found a couple of email newsletters worth reading. They do offer "premium" services for a monthly fee, but I find their free information very helpful. One is called Elite Traders and another is Stock Twits. The rest offer only those LONG videos of some so-called expert promising to disclose "the one stock you need to own" but never does, all they do is tell you they have series of DVDs and books worth $4,900 but you can get the whole set for just $99. Wow! what a bargain.
Both E Trade and TD Ameritrade offer information, guidance, "expert" advice on their platforms, which I refer to at times. But I find it still comes down to you doing your own DD. Have to look at a company's financials, all those measuring ratios, industry news and reports, and a general understanding of the economy and the geopolitical forces at work to get a complete picture of any company/stock. And then, after all of that, it's still a bit of a crap shoot. The stock market is not all numbers and sensible analysis. There are those "silly" forces out there driving values up and down! Have to understand the difference between a good company and a good stock.
On the latter...AMC is a great example. It is not a particularly good company, but it is a very good stock right now.
Most online trading platforms are now commission free with convenient way to track your holdings and watchlists.
Stocktwits is useful for quickly finding the news that is moving a stock (assuming it isn’t one that is widely reported on).
This is a weird time to be investing and not for the faint of heart. You have to balance both conviction and discipline - and those forces can pull you in different directions.
The market can look expensive based on trailing P/Es (but there was a shutdown) of fairer on forward P/Es. It is always forward looking, trying to anticipate what that future E is going to look like and assigning a fair risk premium to it, which is a function of interest rates and the competing alternative places to put your money (most of which have also run up, real estate, bonds, alternatives).
The trick to obtaining alpha, in my view, is understanding the history of how the market moves, have a malleable view of what you think the future looks like (don’t mix in politics), understand the companies that you buy, diversify, maintain balance between conviction and discipline, and maintain a laser focus on your investment objectives and time horizons. Review your portfolio regularly to make sure that it is consistent. Hedge funds have to win consistently in all market conditions. You don’t have to if you have a long horizon.
Also, understanding technical analysis is helpful for picking entry points and exit points in the short term.
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