Jim Cramer Advice "The Flip-Flop that Ought to be Illegal"

Jim Cramer was quite bullish for beaten down sectors a couple of weeks ago including home builders. ON Friday June 13 he said to BUY banks and Retailers. A week later, on Friday June 20 2008, he said if you bought them you're not listening.

He also said to avoid oil and oil related stocks. A week later on June 20th these oil related stocks were up and he said to keep buying what was working so far. He seemed to take credit for "the petroleum complex" as "the ONLY green in a sea of red."

Video Title: "The Flip-Flop that Ought to be Illegal"



Huh? How does one follow this sort of "advice?

CNBC Bonus Bucks Trivia Answers

Daily answers posted at CNBC Bonus Bucks Trivia Answers

Here are today's questions and answers so far:

Squawk Box Question: Print’s not dead at CNBC! Name the editor of CNBC.com’s new “Bullish on Books” blogger.
Answer: Gloria McDonough-Taub

Squawk on the Street Question: In Fast Money’s Web Extra segment “Najarian?s Sweet Trade” which food & beverage purveyor did Pete Najarian praise?
Answer: McDonald’s

The Call Question: In the CNBC.com feature “Shorting Stocks Could Be Way to Play This Market” which strategist predicted “one ugly decline”?
Answer: Kathy Boyle

Power Lunch Question: In the slideshow “Lifestyles of the Super Rich” how much do the swank Christian Louboutin pumps go for?
Answer: $2,500

• Daily answers posted at CNBC Bonus Bucks Trivia Answers

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CNBC Bonus Bucks Trivia Answers

ForBestAdvice.com has the "Bonus Bucks" trivia answers to the daily and weekly questions asked on CNBC's "Million Dollar Stock Portfolio Challenge"

• ==> CNBC Bonus Bucks Trivia Answers

For example:

• The Call Question 5/12/08: On Monday, April 28, James Altucher of Formula Capital recommended which food-inflation trade to CNBC viewers?
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• Answer: Sadia

Nice web site: World Market Graphs at a glance

Don Wolanchuk's Top Picks

Don Wolanchuk posted his top picks today on Silicon Investor.

4/28/2008 at 9:10:06 PM EST
From: da_cheif™

to da moon......best picks.....vlnc mvis mosy sybd gt f gt bid

Past Year Performance:

Past 2 months


Next Year Performance


More at facebook's Don Wolanchuk discussion forum at "Investing for the long term."

QPC Lasers is Bill Mathews' Top Tech Stock for 2008

What does Bill Mathews see in QPC (QPCI) lasers? I recently received in the US mail a 20 page color advertisement for a $149 a year newsletter from Bill Mathews. The majority of the advertisement for the newsletter talks about QPC Laser, Inc. his "#1 Technology Stock for 2008."

I sell a newsletter (Kirk Lindstrom's Investment Newsletter) and would never want to stake my reputation on a single penny stock that had been in a long term down-trend. Also, I have never been paid by anyone to give away my top stock pick for free (without subscribing) so I was quite interested to see why a competitor would do this at what must have been a very high price for the mailing.

Here is a chart for QPC Laser, Inc:

Click chart courtesy of Stockcharts.com to view it full sized

At today's price of $0.84, QPCI is up significanty from the listed date of the profile in the mailing.

The 20 page "advertisement" gives the following information for QPC:

• Current Price (as of 3/14/08) $0.54
• Low Projection $1.50
• High Projection $2.50

I got the advertisement last week or "in early April."

You can see on the graph that QPC was already up about 50% since the advertised "recommendation" at $0.54. This sort of momentum often attracts more buyers. For penny stocks, often someone pays to pump a low priced stock at a low price so the "pumpers" can dump their shares into the buying frenzy. I am NOT saying this is the case here, but I would want to know more before buying any shares.

If this stock is his top technology stock for 2008, then why is Bill Mathewes giving the pick away for free before you pay him for a subscription? Reading the "disclaimer in fine print" on page 17 of this 20 page advertisement, I found the following:

Disclaimer: The CHEAP Investor (Bill Mathews' newsletter) is an independent paid circulation newsletter. This mailing piece is a solicitation for subscriptions. This company was chosen to be profiled after The CHEAP Investor completed due diligence on the company. The CHEAP Investor received twenty thousand dollars ($20,000) as an editorial fee and expects to generate new subscriber revenue, the amount of which is unknown at this time. CDMG, the marketing vendor, participated in writing and publishing this report. QPCI, the issuer, paid $559,434.97 to the marketing vendor, to pay for all the costs of creating and distributing this report including printing and postage in an effort to create awareness about this company.

This is not a typo. The mailed advertisement says QPCI paid $559,434.97, over half a million dollars, to the marketing vendor to "market" the stock!

I also found this online at one of the links given in the mailing:

Disclaimer: The CHEAP Investor (Bill Mathews' newsletter) is an independent paid circulation newsletter. This online report is a solicitation for subscriptions. This company was chosen to be profiled after The CHEAP Investor completed due diligence on the company. The CHEAP Investor received twenty thousand dollars as an editorial fee and expects to generate new subscriber revenue, the amount of which is unknown at this time. CDMG, the marketing vendor, participated in writing and publishing this report. QPCI, the issuer, paid thirteen thousand, eight hundred dollars to the marketing vendor, to pay for all the costs of creating and distributing this report online in an effort to create awareness about this company. The marketing vendor holds no securities of the company, and intends to not acquire any securities of the company. This publication does not provide an analysis of a company’s financial position. QPCI’s financial position and all other information regarding QPCI should be verified with the company. Information about many publicly traded companies and other investor resources can be found at the Securities and Exchange Commission’s website at www.sec.gov. This online report should not be construed as investment advice. Investing in securities is speculative and carries risk. It is recommended that any investment in any security should be made only after consulting with your investment advisor and only after reviewing all publicly available information, including the financial statements of the company. This online report is not intended to be, nor should it be construed as, an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy securities. The CHEAP Investor presents information in this report believed to be reliable, but its accuracy cannot be guaranteed.

How many subscriptions at $149 will Bill Mathews have to sell to equal what he was paid to profile QPC?

• $20,000 fee / $149 per new subscription
• 134

According to Yahoo! Finance, QPC Lasers, Inc. has the following fundamentals at $0.84 per share:

• Market Cap $32.5M
• EPS -$0.251
  It lost 25¢ a share in the last year.
• Revenue $9.93M
• Debt $12.1M
• Book Value -$0.261

Major Holders according to Yahoo! Finance

• UNGAR JEFFREY 3,832,060 as of 18-Sep-07
• FINISAR CORP 3,784,778 shares as of 10-Mar-08

At first glance, you might think Finisar (FNSR) being an owner is good for the stock, but perhaps Finisar got in at the ground floor before the company went public at pennies per share. If you check the list of insider selling for QPC Lasers, Inc. you quickly find that Finisar has been selling shares over the last year between $0.41 and $1.25 per share with the most recent sale of nearly 2M shares at $0.41 per share.


If one of the leading fiber optics companies and the number two shareholder has sold a significant number of shares and QPC Lasers felt a good use of $559,434.97 was to market the company rather than hire some engineers, then I would not be a buyer of QPCI here at $0.84 unless you use a very tight stop loss and be very wary of a possible "pump and dump" scheme.

Disclaimer. I personally own and recommended Finisar in "Kirk Lindstrom's Investment Newsletter" where I buy and sell it around a core position

Jim Cramer on Bear Stearns Tuesday March 11

Tuesday with BSC at $62.97, Jim Cramer took a call from a viewer asking about Bear Stearns liquidity problems. This was his reply.

• Caller Question: Should I be worried about Bear Stearns in the terms of liquidity and get my money out?
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• Jim Cramer: NO! NO! NO! Bear Stearns is fine. DO NOT take your money out.

(See the video of Jim giving this advice below the BSC chart.

Currently at 11:29AM ET: BSC is $4.16, down $25.84 or 86.13%

Date      Open  High   Low Close Volume   Adj Close*
14-Mar-08 54.24 54.79 26.85 30.00 186,885,800 30.00
13-Mar-08 57.64 58.60 50.48 57.00  70,720,800 57.00
12-Mar-08 65.50 67.82 61.35 61.58  26,803,300 61.58
11-Mar-08 68.02 68.24 55.42 62.97  54,966,600 62.97
10-Mar-08 70.28 70.59 60.26 62.30  32,465,300 62.30
07-Mar-08 68.71 73.00 68.30 70.08   8,034,400 70.08

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Not even an "Oops, I was wrong" from Cramer on Friday's Mad Money.

I respect Jim for trying to teach people about diversification, but the idea has any more of a clue what is going on with stocks than anyone else is wrong.

• Jim Cramer Fan Club
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• Erin Burnett Fan Club and Pictures
  

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J.P. Morgan Chase buys Bear Stearns for $2 a share

Tonight, Sunday March 16, 2009, J.P. Morgan Chase announed a deal to buy Bear Stearns (BSC) for $2 a share in a stock-swap transaction that values BSC at just $236 million. On Friday March 14 Bear Stearns closed at $30 a share, down $27 or 47% from Thursday after it announced it had liquidty issues.

At Friday's closing price of$30 per share, BSC was supposed to have a book value of $84 a share.

For a financial company that charges others to manage risk to fall from a high of $170 to $2 a share in just over a year is simply amazing.

Think of all the people who trusted people at Bear Stearns to manage their money... and the company couldn't manage its own risk as a going concern!

One word: Pathetic!

At Friday's Closing price of $30 per share, Bear Stearns had the following key statistics as listed by Yahoo! finance:

Market Cap: $4.08B
Trailing P/E (ttm, intraday): 19.70
Forward P/E (fye 30-Nov-09) 1: 3.34
PEG Ratio (5 yr expected): 0.45
Price/Sales (ttm): 1.31
Price/Book (mrq): 0.68

Bogus Balance Sheet Numbers:
Total Cash (mrq): 266.94B
Total Cash Per Share (mrq): 1,960.529
Total Debt (mrq): 229.46B
Total Debt/Equity (mrq): 19.457
Current Ratio (mrq): 1.17
Book Value Per Share (mrq): 84.03

RIP

Don Wolanchuk Likes MoSys Inc. (MOSY)

Noted Guru Don Wolanchuk likes Sunnyvale California's MoSys Inc. (MOSY)

One large reason Don cites for his excitement for the stock is Silicon Valley billionaire Carl Berg has been on the list of insiders buying recently.

MOSY Fundamentals:

• No Earnings.
  Net Income Avl to Common (ttm): -$8.52M
• Revenue (ttm) = $14.33M
• Market Cap at $4.74 = $152M
• Cash per share $2.023
• Price to Book = 1.50
• Price to Sales = 10.11

MOSY Background from Yahoo! Finance:

• MoSys, Inc. designs, develops, markets, and licenses memory technologies used by semiconductor industry and electronic product manufacturers in North America, Asia, and Europe. The company offers 1T-SRAM, a semiconductor memory technology, to companies that incorporate, or embed memory on complex integrated circuits, such as system-on-chips. MoSys offers its technology to semiconductor companies, electronic product manufacturers, foundries, intellectual property companies, and design companies through product development, technology licensing, and joint marketing relationships. The company was founded in 1991. It was formerly known as Monolithic System Technology, Inc. and changed its name to MoSys, Inc. in 2006.
  

Insider Buy List

• 25-Feb-08 BERG CARL E Director
  17,554 Direct Purchase at $4.34 per share. $76,184
• 20-Feb-08 PERHAM LEONARD CHARLES Officer
  3,700 Direct Purchase at $4.33 - $4.36 per share. $16,0002
• 20-Feb-08 PERHAM LEONARD CHARLES Officer
  9,127 Direct Purchase at $4.21 - $4.36 per share. $39,000
• 20-Feb-08 PERHAM LEONARD CHARLES Officer
  10,173 Direct Purchase at $4.19 - $4.37 per share. $44,000
• 19-Feb-08 PERHAM LEONARD CHARLES Officer
  23,000 Direct Purchase at $3.80 - $4.05 per share. $90,000
• 19-Feb-08 BERG CARL E Director
  4,000 Direct Purchase at $3.79 per share. $15,160
• 15-Feb-08 SULLIVAN JAMES Officer
  5,000 Direct Purchase at $3.49 per share. $17,450
• 15-Feb-08 BERG CARL E Director
  36,200 Direct Purchase at $3.54 per share. $128,148

I like to buy stocks where the insiders are buying with their own money rather than giving themselves excessive stock options that dilute shareholder value. With all this insider buying, I will give MOSY consideration for my newsletter portfolio and personal account.

Keep track of Don Wolanchuk at our "Investing for the Long Term" facebook forum called "Don Wolanchuk."

Carrier Access Acquired by Turin Networks

Feb 11, 2008 08:05 ET
Turin Networks Completes Acquisition of Carrier Access

Expanded Solutions Portfolio and Customer Base Strengthens Turin's Status as an Industry Leader

PETALUMA, CA--(http://momentumstockinvestor.blogspot.com) - Turin Networks, Inc. today announced (Press Release) that it has successfully completed the acquisition of Carrier Access Corp., a leading provider of wireless backhaul optimization and converged access solutions. The integration of Carrier Access strengthens Turin Networks' status as a leading supplier of network solutions for wireless and wireline network operators worldwide.

The new company offers customers an expanded solution portfolio that merges Carrier Access' leading wireless backhaul optimization and converged access products with Turin's leadership in metro aggregation, switching and transport of Ethernet services over optical and copper PDH access networks. In addition to significantly increasing Turin Networks' ability to develop new products that expand upon the existing portfolio of solutions, the acquisition effectively doubles the size of the company's customer base to more than 600 service providers worldwide, including the top five wireless network operators in the U.S., as well as 11 of the top 17 broadband Internet providers.

"The combination of these organizations bolsters Turin's position as an industry leader through the addition of employees that have a significant depth of technology and industry knowledge, as well as leading-edge technology, products and services," said Henry Wasik, president and CEO of Turin Networks. "Service providers can look to Turin Networks for a continued commitment to the development of innovative, end-to-end solutions that enable them to increase network efficiency, capacity, and transition to Ethernet/IP networks, as well as for high-quality service and support."

About Turin Networks

Turin Networks, Inc. is a leading global provider of innovative, Ethernet/IP-optimized network solutions for wireline, wireless, MSO and private network operators. Deployed by more than 600 customers worldwide, these solutions enable customers to increase network efficiency and capacity, and facilitate the migration to Ethernet/IP networks. Turin is headquartered in Petaluma, California with R&D facilities in Boulder, Dallas, Boston, and Shanghai, and sales offices throughout the world. For more information, visit www.turinnetworks.com.

Turin Networks, the Turin Networks logo, Carrier Access and the Carrier Access logo, Traverse, TraverseEdge, Traverse PacketEdge, TransAccess and TransNav are trademarks of Turin Networks, Inc. or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries.

Media Contacts
Kevin Wade
Director, Product Marketing
Turin Networks, Inc.
707.665.4509
kwade@turinnetworks.com

CACS started 2008 out at $2.40 thus the $2.60 final price is a YTD gain of 8.33% while the S&P500 is down 9.2% YTD, the DJIA is down 8.2% and the NASDAQ100, QQQ, is down 14.9%

Chart courtesy of Stockcharts.com. Click to view full sized.

Disclaimer. I own CACS in my newsletter and personal portfolios. I will let my broker turn these into cash at $2.60 per share.

Once High Flying Carrier Access Stockholders Approve Takeover by Turin Networks

Carrier Access® Corporation (Nasdaq Ticker CACS), a leading provider of data and voice transport solutions, on Friday February 8 at 1:45PM EST announced that at the special meeting of stockholders held earlier that day, its stockholders approved the previously announced acquisition of Carrier Access by Turin Networks, Inc. The parties anticipate that the closing of the transaction would occur later that day. Upon completion of the transaction, Carrier Access shares will cease trading on Nasdaq, and stockholders will have the right to receive $2.60 in cash, without interest, per share of Carrier Access' common stock.

Carrier access finished trading Friday with a Bid price of 2.59 and Ask of $2.60.

Over its lifetime, Carrier traded as high as $80.38 in April 1999 and as low as 30¢ in October 2002. (My ROTH holds shares purchased at 39¢ in 2002.)

Chart courtesy of Stockcharts.com. Click to view full sized.

CACS started 2008 out at $2.40 thus the $2.60 final price is a YTD gain of 8.33% while the S&P500 is down 9.2% YTD, the DJIA is down 8.2% and the NASDAQ100, QQQ, is down 14.9%

Chart courtesy of Stockcharts.com. Click to view full sized.

Disclaimer. I own CACS in my newsletter and personal portfolios. I will let my broker turn these into cash.

As of Saturday February 9, 2008, my broker was still showing shares of CACS in my account with a value of $2.59.

Hilary Kramer Recommends Sunpower, First Solar and Apple Computer

Last night on NBR, Hilary Kramer, Market Strategist & Author of "Ahead of the Curve" said she thought the bottom was in (DJIA closed at 12,270.17) and she recommended Sunpower (SPWR=74.25), First Solar (FSLR=164.74) and Apple Computer (AAPL=139.07).

KRAMER: Yes, Paul. I believe we have seen the bottom and we are going to now see a bull come back into Wall Street. We have formed a bottom and the reason we know that is that we finally had real buyers come in today. But we know it even more so because of what I saw this morning and yesterday, which is real fear. Fear took over and it over powered greed. Greed for so long was fueling the market, including as it was going down people buying into it.

KANGAS: Huh-uh.

KRAMER: But once that pessimism, a rational pessimism took over and the last of us capitulated because that's what Wall Street waits for. They wait for the very very last person who's holding onto their stock to give up and to sell and that's when the Street turns around and surprises you.

KANGAS: OK so a bottom we have seen. We might test it a couple of times, wouldn't you agree?

KRAMER: Absolutely. We may be testing and we'll be testing certain sectors.

To Paul Kangas's question "Where do you see value among the tech group?"

KRAMER: That's a great question, Paul. What I have been looking at are the solar technology companies. In particular there's a company called Sunpower. The ticker symbol is SPWR and it is off 50 percent from its high which was only a few weeks ago. Now Sunpower is reporting before the bell tomorrow and we could see Sunpower have some great guidance. If they say that there's a lot of demand out there for their solar modules and if that's the case, the whole solar sector may rise.

KANGAS: What else shines in your mind?

KRAMER: OK another solar stock, a different one called First Solar (FSLR) and it's a different technology, thin film technology, very efficient form of solar. And First Solar is also off 45 percent since December. It's unbelievable what has happened to these stocks because of momentum buyers became momentum sellers and shorters. So if Sunpower goes up, we will see First Solar go up.

KANGAS: Very briefly one more. We have less than a minute.

KRAMER: I would like to talk about Apple (AAPL). This is very important, because as we know, Apple was $202 just recently and it closed today at $139 and it tested $126. I may go back into Apple. But what happened there is Steve Jobs is very conservative in giving guidance. But the key is, they are going to make inroads into the PCs because they can convert iPod users into desk top users and lap top users.

KANGAS: OK. Hilary, do you own any of the stocks mentioned?

KRAMER: Yes, I own First Solar. And Sunpower I do intend to buy tomorrow morning if the earnings come out strong.

Summary & quotes from Yahoo! Finance

Point and Figure Targets for

• FSLR: Bearish Price Objective of $164 met.
• SPWR: Bearish Price Objective of $92 met and it continues to plunge lower to next support level indicated on my graph above.
• AAPL: Bearish Price Objective of $142 met.

Click charts for more info:






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