John McCain's Energy Plan

TheOilDrum has a post about John McCain's energy plan found here. Reason I point this out is because its a smart move to position your investments accordingly come the election in November. Both candidates have various implications for numerous sectors based on their proposed policies. And, I'd recommend figuring out how you want to position yourself should McCain be elected versus positioning yourself should Obama be elected, as both have different outcomes in a few sectors (namely energy and healthcare).

"Arithmetic, Population, and Energy"

Couresy of vruz, I have stumbled upon a very thought provoking series of videos. These videos chronicle a presentation by Prof. Emeritus Dr. Albert A. Bartlett on “Arithmetic, Population, and Energy." The series is 8 segments long and they are all very insightful. I have to mention that the series starts off slow in the first segment as it is laid out like a class lecture. But, it picks up a lot in the second segment. If you sit down and take an active interest in the videos and follow his presentation, you will find the series fascinating. I realize many people these days are so busy they don't have the time to sit down and watch an 8 part video, so I'll embed arguably the most important segment (the 4th one) and then link the rest of the segments below for those who are interested.

Segment 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-QA2rkpBSY
Segment 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb3JI8F9LQQ
Segment 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFyOw9IgtjY

Segment 4:


Segment 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHuwgxrTKPo
Segment 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3y7UlHdhAU
Segment 7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyseLQVpJEI
Segment 8: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoiiVnQadwE

Quote of the Week

I'm going to start a new 'tradition' here per se. Each Monday morning, I'm going to start off with a 'Quote of the Week.' These quotes will come from a collection I've assembled over the years from great investors/traders/books/etc. Whenever I've felt confused or overwhelmed, these quotes bring me back down to earth, preventing me from doing something stupid.

So, without further ado, the Quote of the week, a favorite of Eric Bolling's (highly successful energy trader/conoisseur):

"Trade with your head, not over it."

Hedge Fund Rankings

Alpha is out with the rankings of the top 100 largest hedge funds in the world for 2008. I'll list them by their 2008 ranking and will also show where they were this time last year so you can see who has moved where on the list. Here is the top 5 by their 2008 ranking:

1. JP Morgan Asset Management (ranked #1 in 2007 as well)
2. Bridgewater Associates (ranked #3 in 2007)
3. Farallon Capital Management (ranked #5 in 2007)
4. Renaissance Technologies (ranked #6 in 2007)
5. Och-Ziff Capital Management (ranked #7 in 2007)

And, I wanted to highlight some of the funds that I track in terms of where they fall on the list of largest hedge funds in the world for 2008:

#6 D.E. Shaw (#4 in 2007)
#13. Atticus Capital (#16 in 2007)
#17. Lone Pine Capital (#47 in 2007)
#18. George Soros (#25 in 2007)
#23 Tudor Investment Corp (#12 in 2007)
#24 SAC Capital (#28 in 2007)
#27 Moore Capital (#20 in 2007)
#38 Caxton Associates (#16 in 2007)
#50 Maverick Capital (#40 in 2007)
#53 Eton Park Capital (#70 in 2007)
#70 Viking Global Investors (#74 in 2007)
#79 Jana Partners (#80 in 2007)
#83 Icahn Partners ( not in the top 100 back in 2007)
#93 Blue Ridge Partners (not in the top 100 back in 2007)

Its very evident that three of the ex-Tiger management funds had great years. Lone Pine leapfrogged a ton of funds from 47th in 2007 all the way up to 17th in 2008. Blue Ridge was not even in the top 100 but now sit at 93rd. Viking moved up slightly from 74th last year to 70th now. But, in the end, you have to keep in mind that all the firms on this list could have either gained capital from new investors or they could have grown their capital through successful investments, or a combination of both.

None the less, interesting information. You can read through the whole list here.

Dow Jones Lingering Around 5 Year Trend Line

Over on his site, Stewie has a great 5 year chart of the Dow Jones up. As he illustrates, we're right on the cusp of breaking convincingly through a major long-term trendline. Stochastics and various other signals are pointing to oversold so we should see some sort of a bounce here. But, still, scary stuff. I'll let the chart do the rest of the talking:


Then, combine that with the fact that we are seeing the largest net short position in the s&p in some time. This chart, courtesy of Bespoke Investment Group, illustrates that:


Fun times in the markets!

"The Age of Scarcity" by Jeff Rubin (CIBC World Markets)

This one ought to get TraderMark over at Fundmymutualfund.com all riled up. He has been over there pounding the table with his coined phrase "world of shortages" as an investment thesis for some time now. Then, Jeff Rubin over at CIBC World Markets comes out with a slideshow entitled "The Age of Scarcity." Hat tip to Paul Kedrosky, author of Infectious Greed who originally posted the link to the slideshow.

There's 31 slides in all, but I wanted to post up a select few of slides that really illustrate some macro themes we are seeing.



First, we'll look at Global GDP Growth. As you can see from the chart above, Emerging Markets are clearly the leader as an overall % of global GDP growth. And, this comes as no surprise, as pretty much everyone not living in a cave already knew that. What I am more interested in is the percentage that Central & Eastern Europe is accruing. If they are truly benefitting from Russia's emergence, then you would expect their share of global GDP to increase in the coming years as well. After all, they have already surpassed Japan (but I guess that's not much to brag about is it?). For my money I really think Russia has the best risk/reward setup in terms of Emerging Markets.



Next, let's look at the slide above depicting other regions' dependency on the US Market. And, surprisingly enough, Europe, Latin America, and Asia are all less dependent on America than they were back in 2000. Obviously, the world has become a true global economy and nations have diversified their dependency, which is a good thing. Although I do not want to get into a coupling/de-coupling argument here, I do think it is worth noting that the overall trend the past seven years has been that other markets are less dependent on exporting to the US market. But, at the same time, it must be noted that Emerging Asia easily is the most dependent on the US out of the 3 regions. There has been increasing chatter about how the US slowdown could be affecting China, and that chatter is warranted. The US market represents 16% of their exports and we will have to carefully monitor this situation as numerous investment theses hinge on China's continued growth.



Thirdly, I want to stick with the China theme and glance at the Resource Demand Growth slide pictured above. As you can see, China consumes MANY more resources than we do, and they are seeing average annual resource demand growth of 30% for aluminum and 28% for nickel. This just goes to show that a) China is a hungry monster and b) they are a huge piece of the "age of scarcity" puzzle. Also, I just want to point out that this slide further reiterates my bullish stance on aluminum/Alcoa, as I mentioned here. Demand for these resources is unreal.



Lastly, I want to turn to the housing sector in the US. This slide above shows what we already know: the housing market sucks and prices are falling. What's interesting though is that so many people out there are calling for a '2nd half recovery,' yet they don't seem to realize that the housing market will STILL be in turmoil. In fact, it could very well be even worse by then considering that this summer another major wave of ARMs (Adjustable Rate Mortgages) are resetting back from their low teaser rates to sky-high interest rates. This reset window will obviously take a few months to truly affect the homeowner, as they soon discover their mortgage payments will increase substantially. And, as this plays out months down the road, these homeowners will face forclosure, guaranteeing the next leg down in the housing market. And, it will slap all those '2nd half recovery' pundits right in the face. Interestingly enough though, CIBC here predicts that housing prices and subprime mortgage delinquencies will in essence stabilize towards the beginning of '09. So, they seem to be calling for a early-mid '09 housing recovery cycle. What you cannot see from this chart though is prime mortgage delinquencies, which I anticipate will also see rising delinquencies as people who might have good credit were still baited into taking the teaser rate ARMs which will be resetting. So, while CIBC could theoretically be right in calling a stabilization of subprime delinquencies, you still have to take into account the various other types of mortgages (like prime) which will also undoubtedly see rising delinquencies due to the crazy mortgages people with various credit grades and people from all walks of life were signing up for.

Those are the main slides I wanted to highlight, as I felt they clearly depicted some macro themes we have been seeing and will continue to see. You can check out the entire CIBC World Markets "The Age of Scarcity" slideshow by Jeff Rubin and Avery Shenfeld here.

Peter Thiel / Clarium Capital

Peter Thiel is the co-founder and former CEO of PayPal. Now, besides this endeavor, you might not know that he now runs a hedge fund, Clarium Capital. They are a macro based fund and have been doing quite well for themselves. 1440WallStreet had a great post about him the other day, including a video with some of his macro thoughts. The video is older, but is a must watch if you employ any sort of macro approach to investing. He's a smart guy and has been making tons of money by simply identifying trends.

Make sure you check out 1440WallStreet's write-up on Clarium and the vid of Thiel here.

Possible Snag for Wind & Solar Plays

Taken directly from tradethenews.com,

"

6/17/2008 02:50pm

US Senate vote blocks extending wind and solar energy tax breaks

- in a 52-44 procedural vote that blocked closure of debate on the bill, Republicans blocked the tax break extension for the second time this week. 60 votes are needed to end debate and move it toward a formal up or down vote."

Will be interesting to see how this plays out and how it might affect Wind & especially Solar stocks. Can they really survive without tax breaks and subsidies?

Adding to Walmart (WMT)

I like the looks of Walmart (WMT) here on this pullback. I added my initial position on the pullback to around $55 on the 50 day moving average just a few weeks back. It's run up and then now its back down testing the 50day ma support again, so I'm adding. I cannot stress enough how this is literally the only consumer name I'm playing (could make an argument for MA & V though). When times get rough, people flock to the cheapest of the cheap, and that's WMT. In my first post regarding WMT i mentioned that their stores are PACKED even at 11pm on a friday night when my friends and I stopped in to pick up some drinks.

If you're going to be long the consumer in any way shape or form, this is the play. The chart is perfectly uptrending, using the 50 day moving average as support; it really speaks for itself, just have a look. Buy WMT on the dips as the tight consumer only gets tighter. This can give your portfolio some good diversification away from energy, tech, and commodities (ie: the things that have been working in this market).

Long WMT (have half my position now & will add more on future dips)

3g iPhone = Huge Margins?

Let me start out by saying: don't worry, this is not yet another 3g iPhone hype post that you can find all over the internet. Instead, this is a post about meaningful implications for AAPL as a stock based on some recent information. Ok, so we all know the 1st iPhone was a semi-success, but now that AAPL will be releasing an even better version, expectations are much higher. The initial hype surrounding the 1st iPhone was about growth. "Oh this will be a huge growth product for Apple..." blah blah. The point is that apparently now not only will the iPhone be a growth story for Apple, but it could also be a huge margins story. Portelligent (through EETimes) are out with research stating that they think the new iPhone will cost as little as $100 to produce. This when the 1st gen iPhone cost around $170 to produce. Note: They haven't actually gotten their hands on a new iPhone and disassembled it. Instead, they've done some channel checks in terms of components to gauge pricing and come up with this sum. Although this can be an accurate ballpark figure, I just want to throw that caveat in there. But, even if that figure is just slightly off, the point is that AAPL will still be seeing huge margins and here's why.

AAPL is Billy Badass when it comes to component pricing. If you're familiar with their tactics, then you know they aggressively buy components to ensure their competitive market advantage. Carl Howe over at The Yankee Group gives a timeline of AAPL's business savvy:

"Apple paid $1.25 billion in 2005 to guarantee flash memory for iPods through 2008; that purchase made it nearly impossible for other flash music players to have competitive supplies and profit margins. Apple reportedly negotiated another similar deal in 2007."

And, Howe made this powerful statement as well:

"In fact, if these numbers are true and the carriers are subsidizing the phone, the iPhone 3G could end up being the most profitable product Apple makes. But more likely, this means that Apple has a lot more pricing flexibility than analysts have given them credit for."

The point is that AAPL will be paying much less for components this time around due to technological/engineering advancements and the bullying approach they take in the component space. The display will most likely cost them half as much this time around. Additionally, AAPL will be getting memory for the phone on the cheap and in turn can sell it to consumers for nearly 5x as much as they got it for. The point is that AAPL has significantly reduced their input costs this time around; even with more/newer components in the phone.

In terms of pricing, the phone will most likely sell for $399 straight up no-contract or $199 with the At&t subsidy for a 2 year contract. These figures already show the huge margins AAPL will be seeing with this product. The At&t subsidy is actually a great thing for AAPL because they will be selling the phones to At&t at full price ($399 or so) and then At&t will take the hit in terms of the subsidy to guarantee they get customers in the door buying the phone and signing up for 2 years of service. Zero risk for AAPL there, they don't take a hit.

So, why is this all important? Well, we all know the iPhone is a growth story for AAPL. What I don't think most people realize is the huge margins AAPL will be seeing with this product. With all the high-tech gadgetry inside this phone, people assumed it would cost a pretty penny to produce so AAPL's margins wouldn't be all that high. Au contraire; it sounds though as if those revenue figures would be massively understated. The Mac computer has been the driving force behind AAPL's success all along as they continue to steal market share and crank out sales of macbooks and mac computers. This is the perfect silhouette for what the iPhone very well could be. Mac computers = high growth + high margins. If the new iPhone follows this same formula, then AAPL could see a meaningful boost to their bottom line come September/October. And, the best part is, At&t will be taking the hit by providing users with the subsidy. This gives the iPhone a very competitive price point and many of the features the first gen iPhone lacked. In the end, all you have to ask is: What is AAPL best at? They create high margin products that people HAVE to have. End of.

Some Good Online Resources for Research

Just wanted to take a quick second to point out some great online research resources for those who might not know about them.
First, I want to point out The Wall Street Journal's Money Flow pages. These pages monitor "Buying on Weakness" in which they list the stocks that are down for the day but have seen the largest inflow of money. They also monitor "Selling on Strength" which shows stocks that are up for the day but have seen the largest outflow of money. Buying on Weakness can be found here. Selling on Strength can be found here.

Second, for those who are not necessarily actively trading in the commodities markets, but still want to know what's going on with oil and natural gas, here's your quick solution. It can be found at Bloomberg on their self-updating Energy prices page found here.

Thirdly, I want to link up Goldman Sachs' Conviction Buy List. Goldman is undoubtedly one of the best i-banks/hedge funds on the street right now, having navigated successfully through the credit crunch and recession (so far). Therefore, you should at least keep tabs on the info they release. Not to mention, the stocks that get added to/subtracted from this list will definitely move based on that news. StreetInsider tracks the list here.

Next, I want to link up MSN Money's Insider Buying/Selling tracker. This page monitors the top 10 largest insider purchases and top 10 largest insider sales in the last 30 days, The list is updated weekly on Friday and is based on Form 4 SEC filings. You can find that here.

In terms of news, you need to keep an eye on certain Economic developments and this calendar sets you up with all the action that will take place during the upcoming week on Wall Street. Its a great resource to have so you know what kind of catalysts are coming that will move the markets. Check it out here.

Lastly, just wanted to post up an Options guide for those who might be newer to Stock Options. They're a powerful and useful tool for investors, but you've got to know how they work and the various strategies you can use. TheOptionsGuide has a very good breakdown of all the various strategies here.

Alright, that's just a few for now, I'll add more as the days go on. Please feel free to add any other worthwhile sites in the comments section!

FundMyMutualFund.com - Check it out

Hey everyone, just wanted to take a minute to point out TraderMark's site: http://www.fundmymutualfund.com/. Many of you reading now undoubtedly came here through Mark's site, so you already know what he's up to over there. If you're unfamiliar with his site, he's on a quest to start his own mutual fund and has been cranking out pledges from readers, with this past month being his highest month ever in terms of pledges. This past month, he raised $901k and that brings his total pledges up to $2.5 million. He runs a virtual fund right now via marketocracy and has a solid track record based on his macro investment platform. If you're familiar with mutual fund managers, then think Ken Heebner (CGM Funds) with just a slight twist. He's very transparent, outlining his thought process and investment rationale through the blog. His investment style is very similar to mine and that's how I found him in the first place. Macro investors ftw!

At any rate, just wanted to give him a mention as he's doing a great job and deserves to be running a fund for his track record and the amount of time/hard work he puts into his passion of investing (all while maintaining a normal job as well!). You can pledge by dropping him an e-mail on his page or by posting a comment on one of his posts. If you're not interested in pledging, at least stop by to check out his economic commentary and market thoughts (well worth the read).

You can find his most recent reader pledge update here.

Housing Market Still Sucks... What Else is New?

In the spirit of my post below reminding everyone that we're still in a downtrend, I wanted to point out a post at The Big Picture by Barry Ritholtz. He posts up some staggering statistics taken from RealtyTrac, an aggregator of foreclosure data. In the month of May:

one in every 483 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing during the month of May. This is the highest monthly foreclosure rate since they began tracking foreclosures in January 2005.

And then accompany that info with the following chart. Obviously California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, and Florida continue to feel the pain. What's interesting to see is that the problems in Michigan seem to be slowly oozing into neighboring states Indiana and Ohio as well.



To everyone trying to call bottoms: give it a rest. The housing sector is accelerating to the downside. All you have to do is look at the data.

Just a Friendly Reminder: We Are Still in a Downtrend

While we may be due for an oversold bounce near-term, it's always good to take a step back and look at the big picture. Focus on the green trend lines I've drawn in. Until we get a full break to the upside of that trendline on some strong volume, we are still in a downtrend.

Chart: 1 year S&P500 daily


Chart: 1 year S&P500 weekly


Just your friendly neighborhood reminder.

Investing in Tottenham Hotspur Football Club TTNM.L / TTTHF

(Note: This write-up is prefaced by a post on investing in publicly traded professional sports teams found here, right below this post).

If someone gave you the opportunity to buy a stake in the Chicago Cubs, would you do it? How about the San Antonio Spurs? Or, *insert popular and/or successful team here*. The point is, I think everyone out there, regardless of what team they are a fan of, knows a successful franchise when they see it. And, as investors, we wouldn't turn down the opportunity to invest in such a thing. Now, Tottenham Hotspur aren't quite as dominant as the New England Patriots or New York Yankees, but they're generally the 5th or 6th best team in their league. So, think of a team that is generally 5th best overall in any given American league, and ask yourself if you would buy a stake in them if you had the opportunity. My point is: to most investors, investing in professional sports teams is usually off limits because they are private entities (not publicly traded) and you don't have the millions on hand to buy these teams. However, in England, this is not the case. Some of their teams are still publicly traded companies and you can buy as little as 1 share.

I'm an avid football/soccer fan and a regular follower of the English Premier League. So, my homework is already done, as I've been following the league for years and I know many teams inside and out. So, teams that can be bought on the London Stock Exchange are limited to: Sheffield United (SUT.L), Tottenham Hotspur (TTNM.L), Birmingham City (BMC.L), and Watford (WFC.L). Now, right off the bat we're limited in our options because we want to be buying teams who compete in England's top division, the Barclays Premier League. Sheffield United and Watford compete in the second division, so we don't want them. And, we don't want Birmingham City either because they've just been relegated down into the 2nd division this past season after a horrible performance in the Premier League. So, that leaves us with one option: Tottenham Hotspur. And, surprisingly, having only 1 option to invest in is not a bad thing at all, considering how well positioned Tottenham actually is. And, here's why:

1. Tottenham continually finish in the top half of the league and usually finish anywhere from 4th-8th place, just outside what is known as the "Big 4": Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, & Chelsea. And, since all the above teams are already private, Tottenham are actually our best choice based on team performance should an outside buyer want to purchase them. On paper, they are the best available option in terms of available publicly traded buyout candidates. This past season was full of turmoil for them due to mid-season coaching changes and player transfers. But, now that they are building up their squad, they are ready to compete again.

2. They have a strong fan base & thus a strong revenue stream. Tottenham finished 3rd overall in terms of "Best supported Premier League Teams," behind only Arsenal and Manchester United. Tottenham Hotspur's White Hart Lane (their stadium), saw the total amount of people that attended matches last season: 683,370, an average attendance of 35,967 in a stadium with a capacity of 36,247. This means that their stadium was 99.23% full throughout the season. Again, I want to emphasize that Tottenham are 3rd in the entire Premier League (20 teams) in terms of best supported clubs. They definitely have strong revenue streams.

3. They've made some great acquisitions as of late. First, they brought in their new coach this season: Juande Ramos. He has previously won numerous UEFA Cup titles with his old club Sevilla, provides new hope. Secondly (and more importantly), they've signed Luca Modric from Croatia and Giovanni Dos Santos from Mexico, two promising young stars who've already proven they have talent. Basically, they've signed two very good attacking players who can only get better in order to complement the core of players they already have.

4. The stock itself is up 15% over the past year, and 664% over the past 5 years. Yes, that's correct, 664%. This reflects the growth of the Premier League itself as well as Tottenham's emergence as '5th or 6th best.' I say that mockingly because breaking into the Top 4 of English football is quite hard to do, as those teams are immensely talented. However, with Tottenham's recent signings, they are definitely sending signals that they are here to compete and are here to break into the top echelon of teams in the league.

5. Takeover rumors have begun to swirl over the past few years. The number being tossed around in one of the other rumored takeovers was £400 million, while the club currently has a market cap of £121 million. Believe it or not, there were rumors at one point that Phoenix Suns' guard Steve Nash wanted to buy the team (it's his favorite football club). After all, they are now the only publicly traded team left in the Premier League. If the trend continues, that won't last for long and they'll be bought out. And, the main part of this investment thesis was based on the identification of this buyout trend.

6. Two groups already have somewhat prominent stakes in the club, so they might want to takeover the club themselves, and a foreign buyer might not even be necessary. The current chairman's group, Enic, is the club's largest shareholder with 32% of shares. Secondly, Sir Alan Sugar, the former chairman, owns 14.6% of the shares. So, in addition to possible foreign buyers, you've got some large stakeholders who could possibly launch a bid as well.


At the same time, there are some barriers to entry & some possible downsides to this investment which need to be detailed.

1. Liquidity. It is only available on the London Stock Exchange or the Over the Counter (OTC) markets. And, unfortunately, if you're in America, this presents you with a problem. Even if you have an E-trade account with global trading, you still can't purchase TTNM because it does not trade directly on the London Stock Exchange, it trades on a secondary exchange (think ARCA for NYSE). E-Trade only lets you trade on the main exchange so this option does not exist for American investors. Secondly, even if it was available, this thing is not very liquid at all. Today, it traded just barely over 2000 shares. So, the only option American Investors are left with is to go with the OTC version: TTTHF. This trades just like the TTNM stock. But, you won't be able to track it easily since its OTC. For instance, if you pull a quote up for this, it shows that there is no volume, weird bid/asks, etc. Additionally, numerous brokerages won't let you buy OTC foreign ordinaries, so make sure you check with your brokerage.

2. Stock coverage. Over here in the states, you won't get the daily updates surrounding this name seeing as it trades in England. So, you'll have to take a proactive approach if you want to monitor the possible takeover situation. Not to mention, you'll want to keep an eye on the League Table/Standings, to see how well the team is performing (seeing as the stock will trade slightly based on how well they play). So, if you're not a soccer fan, this could become a burden. Not to mention, you can't even really track the equity you're technically invested in, TTTHF. You'll have to keep track of TTNM, the one that trades in London.

So, wrapping up. This is definitely not an investment for everyone considering the barriers to entry and the task of tracking developments. We have to evaluate this name by a different set of metrics simply because it trades differently than most equities. The closest comparison I can think of is biotech/biopharma stocks. Often times, biotech stocks trade on future pipeline and FDA approval, so you have to evaluate those equities in a slightly different manner. Tottenham is even more odd in that it trades on performance of the team, player signings/transfers, & possible takeover rumors/bids. Although the finances do of course matter, they play second fiddle to all the things just mentioned. I'm confident in this name because I'm an avid football/soccer fan and I have followed the league for years now. I am not biased because I'm not a fan of Tottenham. In fact, I'm actually a fan of a completely different team. So, favoritism obviously played zero role in my decision. I tried to look at things objectively from an outside , neutral perspective. Tottenham are easily the best available publicly traded football club left. And, even if there were more options for us in terms of publicly traded teams, I'd still choose TTNM.L/TTTHF simply because they're consistently in the top 33% in the league, they have a very strong fan/revenue base, and are the best possible option right now. Not to mention, reatil investors will never have a realistic chance of investing in the top 4 teams in the league (ManUtd, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool).

This thesis is mainly based on a rising secular trend. We've seen increasing foreign ownership in Premier League clubs as new ownership groups take these clubs private. While this trend is gradually rising, we have to highlight that this is an event driven play and the timeframe for a catalyst is obviously unknown. While Tottenham has a lot of potential as a buyout target, there are other factors to consider. As always, do your due diligence before investing and see our disclaimer at the bottom of the site.

Investing in an Alternative Sector: Publicly Traded Professional Sports Teams

As investors, we're always looking to diversify across various industries and markets, especially internationally. And, this post is a result of combining two of my passions: investing and sports. In particular, I'm talking about investing in publicly traded football (soccer) teams. Now, I've probably lost my audience already haha, seeing how soccer is not exactly the most popular sport in America. But bear with me! Its the most popular sport practically everywhere else in the world. And, especially in the UK. So, we can capitalize on that.

First, let me address the rising secular trend in this segment that I have noticed over the years: increasing foreign ownership. Specifically, in the Barclays English Premier League (England's top football/soccer division), numerous American and various other foreign owners have taken clubs private. Previously, many of these teams were actually traded on public exchanges. Today, there are only a handful left that trade on exchanges. Football clubs that have been taken private by American owners include: Manchester United by Malcolm Glazer (he also owns the Tampa Bay Buccaneers), Aston Villa by Randy Lerner (he also owns the Cleveland Browns), Liverpool by Tom Hicks & George Gillett (Hicks is the American and he owns the Texas Rangers and Dallas Stars). Additionally, you've got Stan Kroenke who has slowly but surely been building up a stake in already privately held Arsenal (he also owns the Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche, and US soccer team Colorado Rapids, among other things). And, this is just covering the American owners side of things. Recent developments have seen numerous other nations trying to get involved, including Dubai International Capital (DIC), who are trying to acquire Liverpool from either Hicks or Gillett. And, a few years back, billionaire Roman Abramovich bought out Chelsea and took them private. There are even more, but those are the major ones I wanted to touch on. The point is that there are only 20 teams allowed to compete in this prestigious league, and I'm fairly confident all the rest of them will be bought out over the years.

Basically, the trend here is increasing foreign ownership of English Premier League teams. And, with only a few publicly traded teams left, now is the time to act. The main investment thesis here would be to buy a stake in a successful Premier League team on public exchanges and hope it receives a bid to be taken private, thus allowing your shares to appreciate in anticipation of this bid, or outright selling your shares to the new hopeful private owners. Now, this presents a problem in that you don't want to be investing in something *solely* with the hope of a buyout. So, there's got to be another reason to own the stock. And, luckily we've found one: team performance. These club's shares typically trade on team performance and club happenings (signings, player transfers, etc). While financials obviously still matter, these stocks trade differently than typical equities. So, the investment thesis here is more macro in nature as you seek to capitalize on increasing interest in the Barclays Premier League by investors wishing to take sole ownership of the club. But, at the same time, you will need to invest in a team who realistically has a shot of performing well in the league. And, this is where my sports passion/knowledge comes in.

By following the Premier League for years now, I've been able to really get a feel for the league in terms of successful clubs vs unsuccessful clubs. I've used this knowledge as my research in order to highlight potential investing opportunities. Again, this is mainly an event driven pick based on a rising secular trend. The caveat here is that you could be waiting a long while for the catalyst to occur. However, the trend seems to be slowly building up as investors realize the investment potential in the English Premier League. Tune in tomorrow morning for the follow-up post presenting an investment idea. Click here for the follow up post.

Fundamentals / My Quick Value Scan

One thing that's bothered is me is I've come across blogs that post up "Oh I ran my scan yesterday..." but they fail to tell us what the scan actually is, as if its some huge protected secret. So, thought I would go over one of the main scans I run to get a quick glance at possibly undervalued equities.

This is a quick fundamental scan I run on yahoo finance, just to keep up to date weekly on what equities are nearing tempting levels. This is a value based scan, but I am NOT a deep value investor. So, the various banks or retailers that come up in this scan I'll take a quick look at, but I rarely invest in or trade those names. You have to weed through the garbage, because more often than not, there's some garbage that shows up. I'll call this scan "QuickValue". This scan has provided me with past beauties such as Ensco drilling (ESV) and more. Let's get to it, here's what you want to run in your scan:

PE < 15 (<25 if you want to loosen up the restrictions)
Return on Equity > 20%
PEG ratio < 1 (< 0.5 for extremely undervalued companies)
Price to book < 2.5 (< 1.2 if you wish to be like Benjamin Graham)
CurrentRatio > 1.5
Price to sales < 5

A few additional categories you can add:
Strong dividend growth
Low debt to equity
EPS growth of 3.3% of more year over year for a 5 year period
Strong Insider Ownership
Strong Institutional/Hedge Fund Presence

Now, as you can see, you can tweak a whole bunch of different things within that scan (omit a few categories, add a few categories, etc). I run the loose scan first and then fiddle around a little bit. Please note that I do NOT find all my companies through this scan. Companies like Apple (AAPL) and some of the fertilizer plays Potash (POT) and Mosaic (MOS) would never show up on these scans, and yet I'm invested in them. This is just one of the starting places I look for ideas in terms of value. Remember, this is a quick, loose VALUE scan.

Typically, the main things I look for in my companies not necessarily found in this scan are operating margins between 15-20%, a return on equity greater than 15%, strong (accelerating) quarterly revenue growth on a year over year basis, strong (accelerating) quarterly earnings growth on a year over year basis, a PEG ratio of under 1, a price to sales of under 5, insider/institutional/hedge fund ownership.

This is just an idea of fundamental things to look at when you're starting your research on any stock. This is literally just the tip of the iceberg in terms of fundamentals. But, I've found it to be a good starting place to generate some ideas and find some value for the value side of the portfolio. Fiddle around with some of the constraints and see what you come up with. Anyone have any other favorite scans they use pretty often?

Thermo Fisher (TMO): Critical Juncture

As you can see from the chart above, Thermo Fisher Scientific (TMO) has been forming a beauty of a triangle over the past few months. Triangles of this size usually imply consolidation before a big breakout/breakdown. And, this one certainly looks like it will breakout to the upside, given the number of times it has tested overhead resistance at around $59. But, at the same time, it very well could breakdown below its triangle given the shoddy market conditions we've been seeing. I'm in this name and have been for a while. This is not a trade for me, its an investment. TMO and MIL make up my "life sciences" basket in my portfolio. And, an added bonus is that numerous very smart hedge funds have been accumulating positions in TMO over the past few quarters. (Most notably, Blue Ridge Capital, as detailed here).

So, even though I'm personally not trading this name but rather investing in it, I'm definitely keeping my eye on the overhead $59 resistance and the trendline that is established on the bottom side. If we break below this trendline and make a lower low, I will most likely exit this name and look for a better entry point to get long this as an investment again. This is why technicals are so important and can be a great weapon to add to your investment arsenal. Even though I think TMO is a great name to own, this chart is implying a big move soon, most likely to the upside. I believe this is the case because the formation has been building for months and accumulation/distribution is showing slow and steady accumulation over the months. So, keep an eye on it, and get in it for a trade or an investment, whichever you prefer. Momentum traders would like to play this name on a move upwards of $59 on some solid volume. Whereas others might like to play it right now on todays bounce off the 50 day moving average.

All I know is that TMO is making higher lows and has consolidated beautifully over the months. Look for a move with conviction in either direction. Just let the break of the triangle dictate whether to get long or short. I know I'll be monitoring my position intently due to the nature of this market and the nature of this big formation.

Starting a position in Millipore (MIL)

I had written back in my 13f hedge fund analysis of Blue Ridge Capital here that I thought it was interesting that they started a new position in MIL last quarter and brought it up all the way to the #4 fund holding. I was intrigued, so I started my research on the company. And, what do you know, we might have found a winner. Jeffrey McLarty had actually written about MIL here in his breakdown of the water etf PHO. And, although he didn't necessarily like MIL as a play on water, he said he was intrigued by the company itself and decided to revisit the name later.

I really wanted in this name, but it has had a big run over the past few months. So, now coming up on close to a 50% retracement of that move, its time to dip my toe in the water with 1/4th of my total position in MIL that i'll be assembling. I'm flagging this as a buying opportunity mainly because the chart sets up wonderfully here and as I said, its retraced some of its move. (Click the chart to enlarge it). But, besides that, if you look at the blue circles I have drawn on the chart you will see some commonalities. First, at the very top in the RSI. The RSI is in a current uptrend, making higher lows and higher highs, obviously bullish. Additionally, each drop of size in the RSI has signaled a buying opportunity. Secondly, looking at the second set of circles on the stock chart itself, we see that MIL has dipped to support and buying support is always a wise move. The first dip was obviously a double bottom, as signaled by the neon green line I've drawn in there around $65. This double bottom is also significant as it signals the place at which I would really like to load up on shares. And, it gives us a clean stop if we put it below that double bottom. Thirdly, moving down to the blue circles within the stochastics. You will see that each time the stochastics have crossed below 20 into oversold territory, it represents a buying opportunity. Combine all the above with the fact that MIL has completed almost a 50% retracement of its last major run, and you've got the combination for a great entry point.

So, with that said, I'm beginning my position in MIL with 1/4th of my position size here maybe slightly prematurely at $69.34. I'll be back with another post later as to why MIL makes a great investment in the first place. But, just wanted to get this on people's screens as I know some were interested in this name due to the fact that Blue Ridge Capital added it as a new holding, and added it with conviction. When Griffin brings a holding all the way up to the fund's 4th largest holding all in 1 quarter, you know he's up to something.

Oil... $120 is the make or break point. I expect a bounce

Wanted to touch on oil here since its such a big part of the markets these days. Currently, its pulling back and expectedly so. It was due for a pullback, but now we are approaching a very important make or break point: $120. As you can see in the chart above, every dip in oil has been a buying opportunity. And, interestingly enough, each dip has dipped all the way to the most recent peak and then bounced off that peak. Because, after all, that peak used to be past resistance. But, once we blasted through it, it became future support. For some reason I can't get my graphics to show up on the chart but do me a favor and just mentally draw a line horizontally across the $120 mark. There you will see where the pullback is headed. And, if look at the peak in the end of April, where does it sit? Yep, right at $120. Here's the deal, I'm short-term bearish on oil simply because it needs to pullback even more. All you hear about now is consumers complaining about $4 gasoline. So, with demand in the US (one of the biggest consumers of crude) decreasing, oil needs to pullback in price. Pure supply and demand economics. But, here's the catch. You can't expect that to happen because markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent. So, I am *fully* expecting a bounce at $120 if we even get that low. Traders, speculators, you name it, they will all be rushing into this name on a beautiful technical bounce off of past resistance/now future support, as well as the moving averages. I've drawn the exponential moving average in red and the simple moving average in blue, since I know various people use various averages. But, this shows that both are right around $120. It's an imperative level and just wanted to make sure everyone had seen it. Not to mention, stochastics are oversold at current levels, implying a bounce. I don't usually look at stochastics on commodities in general, I typically use them just for stocks. But, its worth mentioning as it also backs up the argument for a bounce at $120.

So, buy oil on the dip to $120 for a trade at the very least. Place your stops below that and call it good. If it breaks below your stop then it's time to get short because then oil is heading lower and will have made a technical breakdown. You can play oil with ticker USO which is the US Oil Trust (think GLD but for Oil). Or, you could play it through the deep sea drillers like RIG, DO, ATW, etc. I'd recommend USO simply because the chart is identical to $WTIC (crude), so you've got clear entry/exit points. Whereas on RIG etc you've got to monitor the price of oil yourself and then set conditional buy/sell orders on those stocks once oil hits a certain price, triggering your order to buy/sell RIG or whatever oil company you choose to play it with.

Also, just wanted to throw in some commentary from oil greats Richard Rainwater and T. Boone Pickens. If you're unfamiliar with Rainwater, he's down in Texas and was famous for striking it big on heavy bets on Disney as well as heavy bets on the appreciation of the price of oil. He and Boone share the Peak Oil Theory belief. At any rate, Rainwater says he's short-term bearish on oil, and he makes the right case in this Time article here.

Boone Pickens also spent some time talking to Time magazine about oil (and his odd position in Yahoo YHOO). You can check out that video here.