Jun

30

Investopedia Stock Simulator

Filed Under Other | 9 Comments 

I haven’t had a chance to update my blog in a long time ever since I’ve been busy with my other blog, gohaceem.com – which is more like a personal blog, where I post funny stuff, movie reviews, etc.  I think starting from now on, I’m going to try to be more diligent in updating this blog.

I recently started playing around with stock simulator on Investopedia.com.  They give you $100,000 (not real money though) to play around with and you can use it to buy stocks or options (again, this is just a game; it’s not real).  This is definitely a good practice for you all who are trying to learn how to invest in stocks/options or to learn how to be a day trader.  I highly recommend you to try Investopedia Stock Simulator for practice.

Quote of the Day:
He who knows he has enough is rich. – Lao-tzu

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Dec

22

‘Penny Stock Rule’ Suspension Has Been Extended

Filed Under Other | 3 Comments 

Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. (NDAQ) has asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to extend its suspension of rules requiring a minimum $1 closing bid price and a minimum market value for shares listed on its exchange.

The SEC approved the suspension of Nasdaq’s “penny stock” requirement, which requires shares of listed companies to stay above $1, in October, saying companies were in temporary need of relief.

Typically, companies listed on Nasdaq are required to maintain a minimum closing bid price of $1 a share. If a company trades below the $1 closing price for 30 consecutive business days, Nasdaq will then allow the company 180 calendar days to regain compliance and can permit an additional 180 days depending on the company’s exact listing standards. If the company isn’t able to boost its share price in that period, it faces delisting from the exchange.

Click here to read more.

Quote of the Day:
Money is like love; it kills slowly and painfully the one who withholds it, and enlivens the other who turns it on his fellow man. – Kahlil Gibran

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Dec

12

The Next Million-Dollar Penny Stock

Filed Under Other | 9 Comments 

I found this on The Motley Fool Website which I thought it was pretty interesting.  I decided to share it with you all readers.  The title of the article is The Next Million-Dollar Penny Stock.

Need proof? Every one of these multibaggers was, at one time, a penny stock:

Company

Recent Price

CAPS Stars (5 Max)

Five-Year Return
GMX Resources (Nasdaq: GMXR) $23.84 *** 1,590.8%
Questcor Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: QCOR) $9.30 *** 1,424.6%
Covanta Holding (NYSE: CVA) $21.58 **** 598.4%
AK Steel (NYSE: AKS) $9.76 *** 152.2%
Vimpel-Communications (NYSE: VIP) $9.50 **** 114.9%

Sources: Motley Fool CAPS, Yahoo! Finance.

The promise of outrageous returns is why some of the world’s best stock pickers are, at times, penny-stock investors. Peter Lynch has and still does enjoy the stock market’s supercheap seats. The Royce Low-Priced Stock fund has beaten the market for a decade by betting on stocks trading near or below $10 a share, such as Silver Standard Resources (Nasdaq: SSRI).

Even the All-Stars in our 120,000-plus Motley Fool CAPS community take to penny stocks. More than a few have been richly rewarded.  So why don’t you invest in penny stocks? I suppose because the SEC has warned us about them. But what if we take the agency’s definition literally and limit our choices to stocks trading between $1.50 and $5 a share, and limit our choices to four- and five-star stocks whose market cap doesn’t exceed $2 billion but is at least $250 million? Surely our new CAPS screener would return some winners, right?

Click here to read more.

Quote of the Day:
Happiness equals consumption divided by desire. – Paul Samuelson, in his famous economics textbook

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Nov

19

Penny Stocks to Watch – PURO, PGOG, DPDW, AEMD

Filed Under Biotechnology & Drugs, Chemical Manufacturing, Oil & Gas Operations, Other | 6 Comments 

I was doing my research the other day when I found this article below on transworldnews.com.  It talks about four penny stocks that might be worth watching.

Purio Inc. (Public, PINK: PURO) closed at $0.11. Today announced that it has accepted an invitation to meet with high ranking government officials from a region of West Africa to formally present its water/wastewater technology.

Participating in the meeting, scheduled for Saturday, November 22, will be The United Nations Development Program (UNDP), a number of financial institutions including United Bank of Africa, and a delegation of government dignitaries including The Minister of Presidential and Public Affairs. A private meeting between Purio Executives and the Minister is planned following the main event to discuss possible strategies regarding Purio’s involvement in the country’s development plans.

What They Do: Purio owns proprietary water clarification technology suitable to a broad number of applications including the clarification of surface water, industrial process water and sewage. Purio intends to apply its technology initially to industrial and commercial applications to reclaim water and reduce the need for fresh water in such applications. Purio further intends to use its proprietary technology to produce potable water for commercial and residential use. Purio will commercialize its technology via a number of channels, namely licensing strategic partners to build and sell &/or operate units outside of North America, outright sale of their second generation (patent pending) units to end users and will build, own and operate on a fee for service basis their larger permanent installation units in North America.

Perf Go Green Holdings (Public, PINK: PGOG) closed at $0.52. Today announced a distribution partnership with United Hardware Distributing Company. A full-line wholesale hardware distributor, United services more than 1,200 retail stores in 18 states and had sales of more than $170 million in 2007.

United Hardware Distributing Company, which has developed a dominant presence in the upper-Midwest, provides a wide range of products, retail programs, and support services to independent retailers. Headquartered in Plymouth, Minnesota, the company is 100% owned by its member-dealers, located in 18 states. United services its members from a 400,000 square foot distribution center located in Milbank, South Dakota. The distribution center stocks a complete merchandise assortment of more than 55,000 items.

What They Do: Perf Go Green Holdings is engaged in the creation and global marketing of 100% eco-friendly, non-toxic, food-contact-compliant, biodegradable plastic products. All Perf Go Green products are made from recycled plastics and completely break down in landfill within two years, leaving no toxic or visible residue, as compared to other plastics that take hundreds of years. Perf Go Green’s corporate name reflects its “Go Green” mission to develop, market and distribute biodegradable plastic products as a practical and viable solution to eliminating plastic waste from the world environment.

Deep Down (Public, OTC: DPDW) closed at $0.38. Today announced unaudited results for the three months and nine months ended September 30, 2008.

Revenue for the three months ended September 30, 2008 increased $6.8 million to $11.7 million, a 140% increase over the same three-month period in 2007. The increase in revenue included $8.5 million from the acquisitions of Mako and Flotation, while our historical service lines had an aggregate reduction in revenue of $1.7 million. The reduction in revenue in historical service lines, compared to the same three-month period in 2007, was impacted by two major engineering and product development projects which were completed prior to the third quarter of 2008. These projects had very low margins, and as such, were discontinued during the third quarter of 2008. The remaining reduction of revenues was a result of customers’ delaying many of their major projects due to the softening of the world oil price and the impact it had on anticipated cash flow of our customers.

Gross profit increased by $4.0 million to $5.3 million for the three months ended September 30, 2008 as compared to the same period last year. Gross margins for the same period improved from 25.8% to 45.5%. The inclusion of Mako and Flotation for the three months ended September 2008 increased the gross profit by $4.8 million while our historical service lines had an aggregate decrease of $0.8 million due to a reduction in revenue for this period as compared to the same period a year ago.

What They Do: Deep Down, Inc. provides products and services to the offshore energy industry to support deepwater exploration, development, and production of oil and gas, and other maritime operations worldwide. The company provides various project engineering and management services, including the design, installation, and retrieval of subsea equipment and systems; connection and termination operations; and commissioning. It also offers installation, retrieval, storage, and management services.

Aethlon Medical (Public, OTC: AEMD) closed at $0.28. Today announced that its Chairman and CEO, James A. Joyce has issued the following letter to shareholders:

To our Shareholders,

In my September shareholder letter, I referenced that our organization was heading into a pivotal month as we anticipated initial Hepatitis-C (HCV) treatment results from a safety study being conducted at the Fortis Hospital. The Fortis study allowed us the opportunity to enroll and test four HCV patients who each received a series of three, 4-hour Hemopurifier® treatments every other day during the course of five days. When considering the rapid replication of HCV combined with the disease being well established in each patient, we did not have tremendous clinical benefit expectations based on a short-term treatment schedule not optimized to reduce viral load. Much to our surprise, significant viral load reductions were observed in the first three patients. Patient #1 had a 95% reduction in viral load when tested three days post treatment and 89% reduction seven days post treatment. Patient #2 had an 85% reduction of viral load three days post treatment and 50% reduction seven days post treatment. Patient #3 had a 60% reduction of viral load three days post treatment and 83% reduction seven days post treatment. Initial data for the fourth patient has now been received for analysis and will be published in a formal clinical study report.

What They Do: Aethlon Medical, Inc. engages in the research and development of a medical device known as the Hemopurifier that removes harmful substances from the blood.

Click here to read more.

Quote of the Day:
For the final exam, I would take an internet company and say, ‘How much is this worth?’ And anybody that gave me an answer I would flunk. – Warren Buffett

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Nov

14

Business That Started in a Recession

Filed Under Other | 5 Comments 

It’s pretty discouraging for us to make any investments these days during this economy slump.  A lot of companies have gone bankrupt, big corporations get bailed out by the government (taxpayers), companies are downsizing, etc.  It can get pretty stressful when reading all about it in the newspaper every morning.  We just feel like there’s no light at the end of the tunnel.

However, Sarah Caron, the writer for insidecrm.com, thought otherwise.  She said a recession can actually be an ideal time for launching a company.  In fact, a lot of well-known, big companies were launched during the recession.  These are some of the companies:

Hyatt Corp. opened its first hotel’s doors at the Los Angeles International Airport during the Eisenhower recession (1957 to 1958). The chain rose to worldwide fame in the following decades and now operates more than 365 hotels in 25 countries with premium services such as wifi hotspots.

Burger King Corp., with its flame-broiled burgers, is another recession startup. The company began in 1954 when James McLamore and David Edgerton opened a Burger King restaurant in Miami, Fla. During another recession in 1957, the company introduced its successful signature burger — the Whopper. Today, the company operates more than 11,100 locations in 65 countries.

IHOP Corp. is another star from the Eisenhower recession. The first restaurant in the now national chain opened its doors July 1958 in Toluca Lake, Calif. Owners Al and Jerry Lapin were at the helm of the fast growing company, which began franchising just three years later. Today, there are more than 1,300 locations across the U.S.

The Jim Henson Company was created by famed puppeteer Jim Henson in 1958. Henson’s business was responsible for some of the best-known puppet characters of all time including Miss Piggy, Kermit the Frog and Elmo. Today, the privately held company is managed by Henson’s children and continues to thrive by creating popular kids-friendly shows and movies.

LexisNexis is a research hub for the law, media and more. The company, originally a government contractor, began its LexisNexis computerized legal research service during the 1973 oil crisis that rocked the country into steep economic slump. The now Web-based service is used in 100 countries by individuals in law, government, education and business.

FedEx Corp. began operations on April 17, 1973 as Federal Express, a nod to the Federal Reserve, with whom founder Frederick W. Smith had hoped to get a contract. He didn’t, but the company that delivered 186 packages to 25 cities on its first night of operations now manages more than 7.5 million shipments everyday worldwide.

Microsoft Corp. wasn’t always the jaw-dropping enterprise it is today. In 1975, when it was created by Harvard University dropout Bill Gates, Microsoft was just a little company in Albuquerque, N.M. It dealt in rudimentary computing languages and began its climb to business stardom with the success of MS-DOS, which was sold and marketed to IBM Corp. and then-IBM clones. Today, the company is estimated to earn more than $60 billion in revenue per year and is branching into new areas including VoIP and CRM.

CNN might be a news giant now, but in recession-plagued 1980, it was a little-known station called The Cable Network News. It revolutionized how people received information when it premiered as the first 24-hour all-news channel. Today, 1.5 billion people across the globe watch CNN.

MTV Networks brought something new and different to the music scene when it debuted in the economic slump of 1981. Intended to be an all-music-video channel, MTV used VJs (video jockeys) to host programs and facilitate transitions between videos. Today, MTV is a global brand with dozens of shows, music-related and not.

Trader Joe’s started as a chain of convenience stores called Pronto Markets in the slow financial times of 1958. In 1967, the company changed its name to Trader Joe’s and began to carry unique grocery items under its own brand. The company now operates more than 280 stores in the U.S.

Wikipedia Foundation Inc. was born during the recent post-9/11 recession. Established in January 2001, the online encyclopedia had more than 100,000 entries by 2003. Today it is home to more than 2.5 million articles and continues to grow.

Sports Illustrated magazine was launched on August 16, 1954, at the tail-end of a recession. The magazine benefitted from fortunate timing as a boom in professional sports exploded soon after its founding. Sports Illustrated now sells about 3 million copies in the U.S. each week.

GE (General Electric Co.) was established in 1876 by famed American inventor Thomas Edison. In the middle of the Panic of 1873, a six-year recession, Edison created one of the best-known inventions of all time — the incandescent light bulb. In terms of market capitalization, GE is now the third largest company in the world. The enterprise has evolved from a manufacturing-strong business to an enterprise earning more than 50 percent of its revenue from its financial services division.

HP (Hewlett-Packard Development Company LP) was inauspiciously born in a Palo Alto garage at the end of the Great Depression. The electronic company, initially supported by a mere $538 investment, has grown into the first technology business to exceed $100 billion in revenue, earning $104 billion in 2007. It now operates in nearly every country in the world.

Click here to read more.

Quote of the Day:
It’s possible, you can never know, that the universe exists only for me. If so, it’s sure going well for me, I must admit. – Bill Gates

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