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| Author: Mike Celeste | Editor: Tony Ponzo | September Circulation: 13076 |
STAT SHEET WEEK ENDING Sept. 10 / 05
**************** Percent / Points
Dow Weekly Change + 2.2 % +232
S&P Weekly Change + 2 % + 24
Nas Weekly Change + 1.6 % + 35
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Comments:
We have had both weeks in Sept. be to the upside and that is a good indication. Nas is now dead even with the end of 2004. Last year we didn't get to the upside until the last 3 months of the year. Maybe this year we can sneak in an extra month??? That would be especially nice since Sept. is the worst month of the year, over time. So far, my ol' Dad had been right--buy in Sept. after Labor Day. The stats above show that there were profits to be made during this past week, or losses were cut on many stocks.
With the tragedy from New Orleans we see rays of sunlight. Fingers of blame are being pointed, but the main efforts are to move ahead and rebuild. That huge effort is going to bring sunshine to many companies that will participate. This recovery will cover a very wide area of the economy--a very wide area. As we often say, whenever there is tragedy, there are also those that benefit. Granted, no one wants to see tragedy in order to benefit, but it does happen, and we should be happy that there are those that can speed up a return to normalcy when these things happen. In many areas of the world this is not true. Price gouging is not what I mean, either---and there was a good discussion on CNBC about gouging. The question was asked--At what point in pricing is it considered gouging? Are supplies being manipulated, and is that a form of gouging? Then, one of the discussion group said that in relation to gas prices, no one is asking the gas companies to give up their profits for donation to charity, but please don't make unreasonable profits on the situation. Of course there are investigations going on, but I have never seen an energy investigation result in anything materially beneficial to the consumer, afterward. Here in California the courts have just decided that even tho there was manipulation of prices for electricity, the electric companies don't have to give the refunds that equal the manipulation. Consumers pay thru the nose again.
One last comment about the hurricane damage. Soon the insurance companies will have a pretty good assessment of the damage. Based on many experiences from the past, we can expect that there are going to be court battles because insurance coverage is sometime going to be denied and it will be challenged by the insured. Having worked for 2 insurance companies in my varied past, I know that insurance companies do not like to pay out as much as they like to receive premiums. I guess that is to be expected---and---there are a lot of dishonest insureds that try to scam the insurance companies, but that is an ongoing battle. I don't like the dishonest; never have, never will. My son's business, in part, is exposing real estate fraud ( I help part-time, too) and it is a great feeling when crooks are found out, brought to trial (or settlement) and punished. Anyway, let's see what happens in the insurance scene coming up. It appears that no matter what, the insurance losses are going to be greater than any past hurricane, by far, and greater than any natural disaster in the history of the US.
The stock market has come thru this national blow in very good fashion, all things considered. To show gains for Sept. is a good thing, but to show gains even with the Katrina blow, is outstanding. Maybe the markets are doing their thing; looking 6 months down the road.
SplitMaster sneaked thru August with a gain so we were pleased with that bit of good news. We had 6 splitters close out just on this past Friday, so it has been a very active week for us. All 5 of the Basic System splitters were winners, and the 6th was a Big Dipper that lost just 79 cents, so it appears that splitters have continued to lead the way.
Remember when I said that if you can't beat them, it is better to join them--and referring to the energy companies? That rule has continued to bear fruit, if used. We get nailed with high prices for all forms of our energy, and the companies continue to make huge profits from us. Now, even tho they charge as much as they can against expenses, the end results are still large increased earnings for these companies. Increased earnings on that scale result in increased stock prices.
Our biggest winner at SplitMaster recently, and this past week, was EQT, Equitable Resources. The stock showed a final gain of 7.79 points and the call option on it showed an excellent 148% gain. Again, an energy stock proved to be a big winner--which helps us pay our energy bills. See, it can work to at least level out the playing field by joining them, since it is so hard to beat them.
I won't go into the gas situation much, other than to say we finally see some of the "experts" acknowledging that demand is starting to drop. They blame it on gas over $3 per gallon, but STILL ignore the fact that demand has already been dropping, as we have constantly pointed out. To get the latest details on these facts, we again point out the site that reports these figures--if we can believe them, and we have to believe someone, at least to some degree---look at
eia.doe.gov and click on "Summary" and "Gasoline" especially. It still boggles my mind ( even tho I expect these "experts" to ignore facts so many times) to hear someone say things that completely fly in the face of head-hammering logic. Everyone around is cutting back on use of gasoline, and has been, and just now they admit there is "some" cutting back.
We remind you that it is worth while, every once in a while, to compare your portfolio results to those at
Splitmaster.com . We remain optimistic about the future of splitters in all of our Systems, including, and especially, options. We still mention that many option players still are ignoring the benefits of writing/selling puts on splitters. As you can see from the free information on our site, the puts are returning a greater percentage of gains than the calls---and you don't have to put up any money to buy them, since you are selling them---BUT--you do have to have assets in the account to cover the possible purchase of the stock if they are "put" to you-- If they decline into intrinsic value before or at expiration, that will happen.
I would like to mention (if it sneaks by my editor) that we are Beta testing another option system that, so far, is showing very promising results. For you option traders, it is a two way spread designed to make money if the underlying stock goes up or down. We are going to keep testing for a while longer and if it continues to look good, we will put up our final testing on the site for you to observe and learn what we are doing. Stay Tuned.
For those of you that are not yet team members, check out the many free sections of our site, and if you even have just a twinge of desire to join us, keep in mind that we have a money-back guarantee. That means it costs you nothing to try us out--if--you don't see how we can help you. AND, we throw in an extra month or an extra week, to boot. If you have any interest in matching our results, this might well be the time to join the Team. (The traditionally good months in the markets are staring us right in the eye.)
Today's Thought---
When you are discouraged, make a little positive effort and your attitude will remarkably improve. When you are weary, make a little positive effort and it will energize your spirit.
Mike
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