PIMPING STOCKS

[Bretsky]

The two individual stocks I'm in are SIRI and ALU.

I have held positions for several years and many times wished I hadn't. Bankruptcy was a possibility with both. However, SIRI is finally profitable and ALU came back to life in 2013. Both are risky and you shouldn't invest money you can't afford to lose.

But, both companies have good leadership now and are innovative. And when Tech recovers and D.C. gets out of the way, these two should purchase me a house one day. That's the plan, at least.

Otherwise, these days I'm all about maxing out my 401K contributions and lowering my taxes and investment expenses.

One thing missing from my portfolio are ETFs. I would be interested in knowing which ETF fund families appeal to the Packer Rat financial brain trust and their expense ratios.

Of the two, which do you think one should be buying now ? I have been pondering ALU myself.

[call_me_ishmael]

You are in the tech industry, right ?
Do you embrace the idea that the cloud is going to be HUGE ?
There are a ton of start ups still in their very early stages as well as some due to IPO this year as well.

Cloud will be huge, yes, but cloud is vague. What is cloud? I think TWTR will be huge eventually because it provides a value proposition. Are you talking abut virtual machine providers, or what do you mean by cloud? Cloud hosts, or software makers? I think Salesforce will be big, Jive seems like a decent buy at 10 bucks, etc.

I think Google and self driving cars will be insanely, unfathomably large.

I'm a gambler to a degree, but I don't really mess with stocks that I don't feel confident in. I'm extremely bullish on Apple. They are the strongest company in the world and valued like a chump. This soon, will change.

[Kiwon]

Of the two, which do you think one should be buying now ? I have been pondering ALU myself.

SIRI's majority stakeholder, John Malone at Liberty Media, is trying to take 100% ownership right now so it's possible that small guys like me will get bought out and not get to enjoy the benefits as SIRI brings video and other services to cars, along with other developments in the future.

ALU still isn't profitable but they have finally found a leader with a plan and have been downsizing for years to address their debt problem. They have new loans and near-term bankruptcy is off the table. They are being innovative, creating new products and are globally positioned. When the global business environment finally improves, there will be a ton of spending in telecom hardware upgrades. The more tablets and smart phones sold, the greater the need for the ISPs to improve their systems. Their LTE products are strong and have several contracts to build 4G networks in developing countries.

Overall, they have only a small market share compared to CSCO and ERIC but they have gotten off the mat and are making some noise. In addition, the financial firms are starting to believe in ALU's CEO and investing, hence the rise in their stock price from $1.27-$4.68 (52-week low and high). I added to my positions in 2012 at $0.99 and $1.61 so you know that I'm happy right now.

I live in South Korea where everything is broadband and 4G networks are available almost nationwide. We love our speed here. But wouldn't it be cool to have 1 gigabit-per-second residential service in the good 'ole USA? It's possible. - http://www.prnewswire.com/news-relea...102768309.html

ALU is doing some good things and they are worth investigating. The whole sector, though, when it recovers will make a lot of people wealthy. I think we will visit some of the valuations of the Internet-bubble age again. Everything will be about data, speed, and storage, driven relentlessly by business and consumer demand.

Again, don't invest money that you can't afford to lose but I think ALU is relatively safe at this point. But I would definitely look to get in before they turn profitable though because once they cross that barrier I think the momentum will take them much higher. Overall, they will go as the sector goes. It's not a question of 'if' but a matter of 'when'. Buy and hold.

(P.S. - Somebody believes in the stock. It was off 3.5% yesterday and then up 8% today before their earnings report on Thursday. Yes, I'm smiling.)

[SkinBasket]

I made a killing on MGM. Or I did last time I checked. Maybe I'll switch to this ALU, whatever that is. I invest like a blind retard, and it works.

[Bretsky]

Check out Peter Ghostine. He is the best technical analyst I've seen. He has AAPL hitting 900 in 2014. If Peter is actively calling for it, you can take it to the bank.

Again... Peter called for FB to double when it was at 25. Sure enough... it did.

CURIOUS.........What was he saying about Apple two years ago ?? Was he calling it a dog ?

[Bretsky]

I made a killing on MGM. Or I did last time I checked. Maybe I'll switch to this ALU, whatever that is. I invest like a blind retard, and it works.

It is interesting; I do too much stock research and like SIRI and ALU before it was noted in here. I watch Mad Money...aka...Jim Cramer each night for starter ideas to investigate. Under Armour has been my kick ass stock so far. But it's one of those that has had such a great run it's almost scary to throw more money at. So I'm just going to keep riding the wave.

[Bretsky]

Hate to say it...but Apple is now a slow growth stock with a HUGE cash position...so I don't thnk there is a ton of risk at these levels....but the reward IMO is not what it used to be either. It may double in the next three years and I'd be happy to see that happen. If Apple is growing then the odds are some of the turbo growth stocks will be kicking ass as well.

Cloud stocks I've been watching, for what it's worth, include WDAY, NOW, YELP, and FB...which the latter is really a play on multiple things that are growing fast within the company.

[Bretsky]

If you are a believe in TWTR a chance to get in might come soon. Disappointing growth for a stock that is very richly priced.
FB reported last week; TWTR this week. Two very contrasting outlooks. Facebook crushed expectations and went way higher and TWTR is probably going to get crushed tomorrow due to not hitting expectations.

[call_me_ishmael]

CURIOUS.........What was he saying about Apple two years ago ?? Was he calling it a dog ?

Yep, he called it. That was easy to see if you followed tech analysis (which I didn't). Trading completely dried up. Gotta look at volume and option prices. It made NO sense for it to happen - the company was so strong - but the indicators surely supported it happening and if you were into technical analysis you would have saw it coming a mile away.

[call_me_ishmael]

Hate to say it...but Apple is now a slow growth stock with a HUGE cash position...so I don't thnk there is a ton of risk at these levels....but the reward IMO is not what it used to be either. It may double in the next three years and I'd be happy to see that happen. If Apple is growing then the odds are some of the turbo growth stocks will be kicking ass as well.

Cloud stocks I've been watching, for what it's worth, include WDAY, NOW, YELP, and FB...which the latter is really a play on multiple things that are growing fast within the company.

I couldn't invest in any of those but FB. I can't invest in something I don't think is fundamentally sound. What does Yelp do for money? Are they in the black or red? What kind of growth can we expect? Lots of funny money in the valley.

AAPL is a growth stock. It's the law of large numbers. 8% growth at 200B is a hell of a lot more additional profit compared to 50% growth at 5B.

iWatch rumors have it coming out soon with sensors galore. I'm a little skeptical personally... but I guarantee you they are pumping an absurd amount of money to getting glucose level through a sensor without the prick. Maybe not this year, maybe not next year, but it'll happen, and it will be an additional 50 billion in revenue per year. The race for the diabetes market is on. Diabetes is going to be the world's biggest health problem very soon. Google has prototypes of contact lenses that can measure glucose, but they are a very long well from market.

TWTR is down 20%. Good time to buy in the coming weeks. Follow Pete and see what he says about it.

[Patler]

I couldn't invest in any of those but FB. I can't invest in something I don't think is fundamentally sound. What does Yelp do for money? Are they in the black or red? What kind of growth can we expect? Lots of funny money in the valley.

AAPL is a growth stock. It's the law of large numbers. 8% growth at 200B is a hell of a lot more additional profit compared to 50% growth at 5B.

iWatch rumors have it coming out soon with sensors galore. I'm a little skeptical personally... but I guarantee you they are pumping an absurd amount of money to getting glucose level through a sensor without the prick. Maybe not this year, maybe not next year, but it'll happen, and it will be an additional 50 billion in revenue per year. The race for the diabetes market is on. Diabetes is going to be the world's biggest health problem very soon. Google has prototypes of contact lenses that can measure glucose, but they are a very long well from market.

TWTR is down 20%. Good time to buy in the coming weeks. Follow Pete and see what he says about it.

Google is not even certain that tears or anything else associated with the eye are reliable indicators of glucose levels, let alone having a contact lens suitable for using it. In a lot of ways, Google has the cart before the horse on that one.

[call_me_ishmael]

Google is not even certain that tears or anything else associated with the eye are reliable indicators of glucose levels, let alone having a contact lens suitable for using it. In a lot of ways, Google has the cart before the horse on that one.

Yep. Long way from market. I guarantee you that Apple is pumping as much money as they need to figure out how to get glucose levels through the skin via the wrist within 2-3 years. iWatch isn't about today, it's about tomorrow. They get the glucose level, they get the 100B market.

[3irty1]

The prickless blood sugar sensor has been the holy grail of biosensors for over 10 years. Are there actual breakthroughs?

[call_me_ishmael]

Peter just said today that he wouldn't bet his IRA, but he'd bet anyone 100K that AAPL hits 900 in 2014 after retesting 425ish.

[call_me_ishmael]

This is the earnings chart.