Good one on MIK. I was looking at GOT a couple of days ago, but unfortunately didn't pull the trigger.

I don't know why Ldvee thinks we are disinterested in the SUREE saga. I am similarly riveted.

I also bought Big Lots, but sold the 17 1/2 September Calls which may be a mistake.

I SURE am not ever interested in looking at that stock again.

I wonder how the parent company, Titan, will be affected by this "little" Problem?

The GOT chart reminds me of what happens after I take Viagra or in recent months Cialis.

MIK now at $44.15.

Man what a great way to end the day.

What do you think?

Should I be a selfish bastard like all good Republican and hold for a year and pay only 15% of this to the government or should I be a patriotic Democrat and hope this gets sold in September so I can pay 40% of this potential profit in taxes and feel good about how I am helping mankind?

Options Account
Michael Stores

Date Description Price

8-07-03 Bought 500 Shares of MIK $18,154.00

8-29-03 Sold 5 Sept 45 Calls ($695.00)

8-29=03 Net Cost Per Share $17,459.00


If Shares Are Called on Sept.19, 2002

Net Profit From Stock $4,296.00
Net Profit From Options and Dividends $695.00
Net Profit $4,991.00
Percent Return 42 Days 28.59%
Annual Percent Return 245.03%

I vote you get called out and take it like a man. What a good trade!! With defecits like they are now it is the least you can do. We need those tax dollars. I have been a good American today and boughts some puts on the evil Dell empire. I am looking for this tech rally to die soon so I can be right for once. It's better than trying to teach my Brazilian friends to play poker without cheating.
Good trading to all here. Jerry

Breaking SUREE news: http://biz.yahoo.com/pz/030829/44485.html

"Glancy & Binkow LLP Commences Class Action Lawsuit and Seeks to Recover Losses for Investors who Purchased SureBeam Corporation -- SUREE"

Is anyone out there surprised?

Ben, I would probably take the profit, rather than risk it giong down over the next year. I'd rather pay taxes on a profit than take a loss.

Unless you think it will continue to go up, of course.

Sure is fucked, they don't have enough money to defend themselves.

Kendricks,

I really like stock, but don't love this stock(MIK).

Just like the women of Tijuana, we expliot these investments knowing that we never want them to be with us forever.

I think MIK will fall back over the next few weeks along with this very good market.

We ususally see some consolidation before the next leg up. It is impossible to predict where this stock is going, but I wouldn't be surprised to see $50-$55 by the end of the year.

Excellent analogy, Ben. Have you guys looked at ZONA? It has my vote for the greatest ticker symbol of all time, other than PUTA.

Ben, do you usually switch out of stocks during the tax selling season, or do you stay invested and adjust to stocks you think will not be victims? I have heard a lot of opinions on this topic, but am not sure if this is something I should concern myself with.

last week:
9450 for the goutmiester Ldvee,
Rev jdk00, in the name of God takes 9357, and the champion pie eater picks 9200

---------------

Although I may have an acute arthritic condition, totally undeserved by a young, handsome, sauve man such as myself BTW, I SURE know how to pick stocks.

drumroll......
I am the winner.
applause

Thank you, thank you, thank you

Ldvee,

Man that gout must be a bitch. I hope your winning the Dow will help soothe the pain.

Ben picks 9300 for next week.

Actually I got on top of the gout situation immediately and knocked it out with colchicine. Also found a good painkiller in a Rosarito farmacia Thursday night - Tramadol, not sure what it is but it works. Pricey, $40 for 50 pills. Spent the night in an oceanfront Rosarito Beach Hotel room with the fave. Fun place, fun chica.

September is famous for being the worst month of the year for the stock market. It will be interesting to see what happend this month.

9212 for me

Dow 9405

A late 9500

Kendricks-9212 for me

Ben picks 9300 for next week.

T_Bone-Dow 9405

Ldvee-A late 9500

MWY and ALT having nice days today.

Kendricks,

ALT is running out of money with a burn rate of over 5 million per quarter and only about $15,000,000 in cash.

They have no product to sell and no income coming in.

Why do you think ALT is worth buying?

ALT had a speculative bubble bust just because of an overreaction to a bad trial on one of its drugs. It appears to have promising drugs in its pipeline, and I think there is a good chance it will pop upwards on any good news or promising trials.

Even though it is burning cash, it has no debt. These debt-free speculative biotechs seem to have a way of raising cash to keep their trials going.

I wouldn't bet the farm on it, but I have a few thousand shares that I bought after the fall which say it will continue to rise from here.

MWY is also a great risk, although it was much better to get in at the 2.20 to 2.30 range. I got into MWY before the recent fall, but added to my position near the lows, so I am still happy about it.

Look at REGN, OMG, and IMCL. This is a pattern I like, that seems to scare many people. The key, I beleive, is to avoid companies with debt, and that have no intrinsic value. I understand your concern about ALT's cash burn, but we will see how this one plays out.

If nothing else, it will be interesting.

"This is a pattern I like"

I know you combine TA with the reality of the situation but what cracks me up are the new posters to the SURE board who say it's a buy based upon some squiggly line pattern. There are now 8 separate shareholder lawsuits going.

I have a feeling that these auditor firings is a red herring and the subsequent delay of the quarterly report is due to some real ugly event that hasn't surfaced yet, and will be in the quarterly report. We'll see.

If it's not a bad report, and revenues are picking up, and these lawsuits dry up and blow away, SURE is a good gamble at these prices. But that's a lot of ifs.

I have been vigorously selling calls on my stocks as I feel we are due for a little cooling off over the next couple of months.

I think the economic news will continue to look good, but many stocks have had huge run ups over the past few months.

I currently have three stocks that I am losing money on. One is Fonar, but I did sell some for a small profit last week.

The other stocks are BAX and AIG.

Down about 6k on AIG and 15k on Bax.

I use to own and made incredible money on a company called ESIO. I am considering taking the losses which I could use and either go to cash or maybe start buying this company.

They have a very strong balance sheet and I think their business may really pick up by next year.

Fucking ACTG was up over 60% today. If you recall, I owned that a month or so ago, and made about a 20 or so percent profit on it. ALT was up again for me today.

Ldvee, I agree that pure technical analysis is not to be relied upon. In my experience, though, basic charting, such as paying attention to support, resistance, trends, volume, dramatic moves, etc., taken in context with fundamental analysis and news analysis, is worthwhile and essential.

Hey Ben,

How far out are you selling those calls?

The way CSCO has shot up, I'm thinking time may be right to buy puts and or sell calls on Csco, Dell, Sunw, and NXTl.

Max,

All my recent option trades have been to write/sell calls on stocks I own.

I have five different stocks with Sept. Call Options and four with Oct. Call Options.

I am looking pretty good as I could, as of this morning, buy the Sept. Calls back on four positions for less than I sold them. In a couple of these Sept. positions the options will probably expire worthless(good for me).

To early to predict the Oct. Calls.

Thanks Ben.

I was thinking of SEPT covered calls but not much premium in most of them for my stocks. I was looking more at OCt as it is also traditionally a bad month for Tech while Jan an excellent month for techs.

Do you ever buy puts, Max? I have written a lot of covered calls, but never bought puts as a hedge. What has your experience with this strategy been?

Due to the way the market has been in the past.
Puts has saved my ass somewhat in the past.

Now it is more like insurance, sometimes you just throw away money but it protects you against a fierce downturn and helps make you sleep better.

I have not purchased puts in a while since the market has been rising consistently.

However As we enter SEPT and OCt doom and gloom months and many talking heads yapping about overvalued stocks, I am now considering puts again.

I was looking at puts and calls both today but did not make up my mind and in the meantime the OCt dell 37.50 calls which I looked at selling at 1.00 quickly went down 15% to .85 in twenty minutes.

I know guys that do nothing but day trade and short term trade options and do quite well.

I am not such a risk taker of yet as I want to be an expert (book/knowledge wise) before I start doing spreads, straddles etc.

jeez I'm the winner again!!!

stocks may be viewed by the talking heads as overvalued but remember there's two ways for the p/e ratios to come down, lower price or higher earnings. I hope it's the latter and from what I'm seeing in my business, information technology, things are a hell of a lot better now than a year ago, and this is the information age.

Therefore DOW 9600 next week.

Optimistically yours,

Ldvee

P.S. How about those illegal alien driver licences? Are we going to have to show passports at the border now to prove citizenship?

Congratulations Ldvee. You almost hit it on the head.

I am sorry, but I think you are going to be way off next week, just like your SURE.

Ben picks 9350

I didn't consider 9/11 is next Thursday. I wonder how many illegal Iraqis will be getting CA licenses.

Oh well hang on, it won't be long before that great Republican will be Governator. He's going to do an audit and fix everything, what a plan.

Rush, George, Arnold, what a crew.

Vote Camejo

Vote Peter Uberhof or how ever you spell his name.

Really the only smart canidate who understands what needs to be done.

After Davis' signing of AB 60 today, I am officially endorsing his campaign to remain in the governor's office, and renouncing my affiliation with teh Republican Party.

How ironic it will be if Davis stays in office, and the right wingers who tried to oust him only have drivers licenses for illegals and the domistic partnership law to show for their efforts! What a fucking riot!!!

Vote NO on the recall. Are we able to vote no, and then vote for a candidate to become governor just in case it passes? I'm kind of torn between Mary Carey, Larry Flynt, Gallagher and Gary Coleman.

By the way, the whole driver license for illegals uproar is bullshit. All this does is turn the clock back to 1994, before the law requiring proof of legal residency or citizenship in order to obtain a license was passed.

"All this does is turn the clock back to 1994"

That doesn't mean the uproar is BS. Maybe the 1994 law was a good one perhaps?

Right or wrong the license is a quasi proof of citizenshp. Allowing illegals to have it degrades it.

My concerns would be eliminated if they issued a different one for illegal immigrants that had a big red "I" on it so it would be obvious that the holder is here illegally.

The 1994 law was bullshit. I'm so fucking tired of people who worship at the altar of Law and Government.

The border is a fucking line that people move across to go from one part of the earth to the other. Big fucking deal. I like and respect illegal immigrants for having the balls to cross that line in the sand, in search of a better life.

Let them have their fucking licenses. Again, BIG FUCKING DEAL. The fact that some guy who came here illegally to wash dishes in your favorite restaurant can now get a drivers license has no negative impact on your life at all, and benefits him greatly. Those who try to get you worked up over this issues are just pandering to your xenophobia and latent (or possibly overt) racist tendencies.

Anyone who is upset by Davis signing AB 60 can go suck a big fat hairy moose cock.

SEND A MESSAGE TO THE RIGHT WING FASCISTS WHO WANT TO HIJACK OUR GOVERNMENT - VOTE NO ON THE RECALL!

9277 for next week.

I have no problem with Mexicans having CA DL's. In fact I think it is a good idea. Maybe some of them will even buy auto insurance?

My problem is that a person can now register to vote in both local and national elections by simply having a CA DL. I hope DMV will have a way of making sure illegal aliens from whatever country can not vote in our elections.

I have never, up until now supported the recall of Gray Davis, although I do find him the ultimate slime ball politician. But after Kendrick's post:
"SEND A MESSAGE TO THE RIGHT WING FASCISTS WHO WANT TO HIJACK OUR GOVERNMENT - VOTE NO ON THE RECALL!" I have changed my mind.

I can think of nothing better than to "HIJACK OUR GOVERNMENT".

Also I must admit, that I now feel much more comfortable being a Republican, than I did when Kendricks professed his affiliation. I never believed him anyway.

The voting issue is a red herring. All you need to do to register to vote is go to the registrar of voters, pick up an application, fill it out and send it in. You have to declare you are a citizen (just as you do when registering to vote at the DMV) but there were no controls BEFORE AB 60 passed, either.

I was blinded by the joy of attacking Iraq when I briefly affiliated with the Republicans. The Republican affiliations with the religious right and various right wing racist groups have soured me on them, though.

Why can't we have a party that is pro freedom, pro gun, pro kicking the shit out of Iraq and Afghanistan, pro abortion, anti racism, and anti religious zealot? Is that too much to ask?

Most Republicans I know are not "the religious right" and I feel it is Dem. propaganda which they use to scare people that Repub will try to force their religious beliefs on all people.

I do agree that the abortion issue loses millions of votes for the Republicans. I hope some day they wise up that abortion is here to stay, and is a personal dicision.

Mexico would be a hell of a lot better off if they legalized abortion.

How many Repubs did you vote for while affiliating? HA HA

I also disagree with the voting issue. Many low income/uneducated people do not bother to vote, in many cases because they are not registered. So it is definitely to the advantage of the Democrats to encourage these illegal aliens to register to vote and not verify their citizenship. This is not a red herring and I am sure the Repubs will start producing examples of illegals voting. Oh, it is nothing new for the Dems to seek out illegal voters. They actively registered illegal aliens in Orange county a couple of years ago.

I just don't understand how the Dems keep getting elected as they continue to bankrupt this state?

Anyone who is upset by Davis signing AB 60 can go suck a big fat hairy moose cock.

no comment

Vote Peter Uberhof or how ever you spell his name. Really the only smart canidate who understands what needs to be done.

His chances are looking bleak, unfortunately, and his ad campaign is lame. Even so, Ueberroth (learn how to fuckin’ spell) is going to get my vote. This will be the first Republican I have ever voted for (after I vote AGAINST the recall).

Yo tambien

The reason the voting issue is a red herring is that NONCITIZENS CAN ALREADY ILLEGALLY REGISTER, BY SIMPLY FILLING OUT THE DAMN FORM FROM THE REGISTRAR OF VOTERS AND MAILING IT IN. A drivers license is not needed to vote.

YES I UNDERSTAND how to register to vote.

The point that I so clearly made in my previous post was that it is much more likely that illegal aliens will register to vote now that they can do it at DMV.

YOU ARE STILL MISSING THE POINT. Undocumented migrant workers don't even need to go to the DMV to register illegally, if they are inclined to do so. All they need to do is mail in a fucking form.

Anyway, since most people who are eligible to vote don't even bother to do so, it is kind of silly to believe that most undocumented workers are going to risk calling attention to themselves in order to illegally commit an act most people consider either a pain in the ass or a waste of time (or a combination of the two).

I AM NOT MISSING THE POINT!

Where is Ahora?